Mass Effect: Deception
by LEGION001
Summary: When Cerberus discovers an abandoned frigate with completely foreign technology they immediately towed it away to be researched and reverse engineered. When the facility studying the ship and its occupant goes dark. The Illusive Man sends Commander Shepard to investigate not knowing what evil he was about to unleash. Dark/Evil Fic Rated M for torture and murder.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: Hey guys, so I know it's been a while since I updated Nano Effect, but unfortunately I ran into a massive wall in that story atm and I'm just not sure how to continue it. I've been stuck in the same place for the last.. wow has it really been three months? But its really irritating, I managed to write half of the chapter in like two or three days, but the rest is not letting itself be dragged from my mind. _

_Anyway I decided to just go ahead and release the first chapter of one of the stories that I've been writing on and off for probably a year now whenever I haven't been able to write NE. A little backstory as it were, I've been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic on and off since it came out and while yes gameplay wise it is exactly like WoW and as such is extremely boring, I am always dragged back by the stories which I love. In particular I always return to the Sith Inquisitor as the Inquisitor is my favorite class in that game. I know that many people prefer the Warrior of the two sith but personally the Inquisitor is right up my ally. So since I love Darth Nox, and I love mass effect I decided to write this, a story where Nox is thrown into the Mass Effect universe right at the beginning of ME2 and will try to take over the universe, corrupting Shepard as he goes._

 _While originally I had planned to not post any new fics until NE is finished I figured that hey since I've got some severe Writers block in NE and that Star Wars Episode Seven is just around the corner (Hype!) I might as well go ahead and post this._

 _Now then this is going to get dark pretty quickly. Darth Nox is not a nice guy, he is evil and he is going to be killing and torturing on his quest to take over the milky way, so be warned. As Darth Nox himself says, "Murder and Mayhem awaits!"_

* * *

Commander Zacharias Shepard crossed his arms as he regarded the leader of the extremist group. He had just gotten back from the colony of freedoms progress, the most recent in a series of attacks, where he had just confirmed that the collectors were behind the abduction of every human from the colony. Before that he had woken up to an attack on the facility he was in, soon learning that apparently two years had passed and that he had died in an ambush that destroyed his ship, only for Cerberus to bring him back. He hated having to work with the Illusive Man, after all that he had learned about Cerberus, however he was forced to see his point. If no one else was investigating the Reapers and the collector attacks, then he would grit his teeth and bear with it. "You're holding something back. how do you know the Reapers are involved?" he asked, testing the man infront of him.

"The patterns are there, buried in the data." Was his simple response. "The Council and the Alliance want to believe the Reaper threat died with Sovereign. You and I know better. I won't wait until the Reapers are on the march. We need to take the fight to them."

Shepard nodded. "If this is a war, I'll need an army." he paused for a moment "Or a really good team."

The Illusive man smiled. "I've already compiled a list of soldiers, scientists and mercenaries. You'll get dossiers on the best of them. Finding them and convincing them to work with you could be challenging. And that already brings me to the first complication."

"Well this is starting out well." Shepard muttered.

The Cerberus leader gave a slight grimace. "Unfortunately one of the men I had selected to join you was stationed at a facility that recently went dark. I would ask that you go to this facility and investigate. Find and extract him."

Shepard raised an eyebrow "Who is he?"

TIM as Shepard had started calling him in his head took a long pull from his cigarette. "An ex-alliance N7 operative. He was rather incensed about the Alliance refusing to acknowledge the reapers and joined Cerberus. I'm sure that you will actually find him to be quite agreeable."

"Fine. I'll go look for him. Where is this facility?"

"You fill find the facility on Xawin, in the Horse Head Nebula. I will send you the coordinates." TIM paused. "Before you leave two more things. First, I would suggest you go to Omega. Find Mordin Solus. He's a brilliant salarian scientist and my sources tell me he should be able to find a counter to the seeker swarms."

Shepard narrowed his eyes. "I haven't even started and you seem to be telling me what to do?"

"I'm giving you direction." The Illusive Man corrected. "What you do with it is up to you. I'm sure you'll make the right decision."

"Fine. And your last thing?"

"I've found a pilot I think you might like. I hear he's one of the best. Someone you can trust."

Before Shepard could ask what the hell he meant with that, his hologram disappeared and the holographic tube that had surrounded him started to lower back down. Hearing the door behind him open he turned around as he heard a familiar voice. "Hey commander. Just like old times huh?"

* * *

"So, who's this operative we're supposed to get, and what's at this facility?" Shepard asked looking over at Miranda who sat opposite him in the shuttle.

"Samuel Michaels." he said, opening his omni-tool. "Also known as the Lion of Elysium. He was one of many who left the alliance after battle of the citadel. He was very outspoken about the reapers following your death. Too outspoken, our sources say that the Council put pressure on the alliance to silence him. They in turn gave Michaels a choice, either to stop telling the truth or be discharged. He decided to leave of his own will and joined Cerberus instead. As for this facility we're going to, unfortunately I don't know much. The only thing that the Illusive man has informed me of is that its purpose was to study some kind of unknown ship they found drifting in space."

"Reaper?" Shepard asked narrowing his eyes.

Miranda shook her head. "The Illusive man did tell me that it wasn't a Reaper or Collector ship. But something completely different."

"Sounds like Cerberus was messing with things they shouldn't have. Again." Shepard muttered.

"Some could say that the lazarus project is something that we shouldn't have 'Messed with' either. Would you agree with them commander?"

Shepard stared off at the wall of the shuttle in silence. In truth he wasn't sure what his feelings on his resurrection were. he pulled himself out of his thoughts, pulling out his shotgun as he felt the shuttle landing. "Its pretty cold here. You sure you're equipped to deal with it?" he asked looking skeptically at Miranda's catsuit as he sealed his helmet. "Well if you're sure." he said when Miranda nodded. The shuttle doors slid open, revealing a harsh blizzard that severely limited his visibility.. Taking a step forward he sank ankle deep in the snow that had piled up on the landing pad. Peering through the blizzard, he spotted a walkway leading up to a door built into the side of a mountain.

Trudging forward in the snow he reached the door and stepped to the side, motioning for Miranda to enter the codes he had been given. After a short moment, the door slid open and shepard stepped inside, followed by the two cerberus operatives. As the doors slid closed behind them, Shepard took in the room which he had just entered. Chaos would be the best way to describe it. Dead guards lay everywhere, pools of blood starting to dry lay around the corpses.

"What happened here?" Jacob asked in horror looking around at the devastation around them.

Shepard grimaced as he knelt down next one of the bodies, examining it closely. he frowned as he noticed something very unusual. "Do you guys see this? Some of these guards seem to have been bitten, clawed and beaten to death. And look here. These guards, have blood in their mouths, on their hands… And look at their faces, skin as white as a sheet, yet their veins are black. This reminds me of the husks that the geth used, but different. Those were blue and had definite synthetic parts."

Shepard saw Jacob and Miranda exchange worried glances. "Come on, we need to investigate further. Maybe there are still some people alive here."

* * *

Shepard closed yet another scientist log. He had found quite a few of these logs throughout the facility and from what he could gather, Cerberus had found a ship with technology completely foreign to them drifting in space. When they boarded it to investigate they found it to be in relatively good condition, in addition to finding a masked humanoid alien in some kind of stasis chamber. They had immediately towed the ship away and brought it to this facility. He wasn't quite sure how they managed to land the ship without flying it but he supposed they could have put it in the cargo bay of a frigate or cruiser if it was small enough. The scientists had been unable to conduct any scans on the person in the stasis chamber, as something, presumably the energy emanating from the chamber, kept disrupting their scans. They were however able to learn about much of the ship's technology. Apparently it didn't use any kind of mass effect technology at all, fired energy weapons and used ion engines for propulsion. Cerberus hadn't been able to tell if the ship was capable of FTL travel or not before the problems started occurring.

These problems apparently started small, a few scientists and guards started suffering from short term amnesia but then soon after regaining their memory. They would sometimes suffer blackouts, not remembering what they'd been doing in the past few hours. Then it got worse, the blackouts started happening more and more often and the victims started going crazy for the duration before snapping back to reality. As time passed the victims began to no longer wake from their ailments and went completely insane, starting to babble about trying to save the "Dark Lord". Those unaffected by whatever was going on started to think that the alien was this "Dark Lord" something that Shepard was starting to agree with. Not long after, the victims turned hostile to everyone else and just started beating, biting and clawing the others to death. It seemed very similar to the "indoctrination" that he had witnessed during his hunt for Saren. But the ship seemed to be nowhere near known reaper tech, and the bodies that he found didn't seem like the husks as he remembered them.

Finally after watching a log with a timestamp of just a few hours ago, where the scientist recording got set upon by a group of the insane, Miranda spoke up. "Commander, I don't know if we should continue investigating here. It seems to be far too dangerous. We don't know what caused this insanity and for all we know we are being exposed to the same thing."

Shepard frowned and shook his head. "I don't think it will affect us this quickly. Besides if this is Reaper tech then we need to investigate it. And there may be some people still alive and sane in here. We need to get them out and hopefully if we can find the source of this insanity, probably this "dark lord" then we can stop it and save those afflicted by it."

"Commander" Jacob interrupted holding a hand to his ear "Can you hear that?"

Shepard fell silent and strained his ears. At first he couldn't hear anything, but then echoing through the corridors ahead of him he heard the very distant sound of gunfire. "There's still someone alive in here! Let's move it. Double time!" Starting to run towards the sound of gunfire Shepard began to hear sounds that sounded as if a pack of rabid animals were attacking something, causing him to increase his speed even more. After running through various corridors he finally arrived in a large room, in the middle of which stood a small frigate sized ship, about one hundred meters long. Two triangular wings jutted out on either side of what he assumed to be the cockpit that joined together at the back to form the main body of the ship. It was covered in black armor plating and on either side of the wings it had cannons the like he had never seen before. No doubt those laser cannons he had heard the scientists talking about in their log. However what grabbed his attention was the horde of crazed people, all either wearing guard or Scientist uniforms, trying to run up a ramp which he assumed led into the ship itself. he heard the staccato of an assault rifle and spotted multiple people tumble off the side of the ramp, dead. The others pressed on, ignoring their dead, rushing up the ramp, all the time releasing this hideous growling, wordless babble.

As Shepard stared at the scene in shock, a few of the crazed people spotted him and began running towards him, looking less like humans and more like feral animals. As they got closer, shepard saw that their eyes seemed to be glowing with a faint purple light. Reluctantly pulling out his assault rifle he started letting loose short bursts at the incoming threat. They continued to rush towards him, even as a few of them fell to his accurate shots. A second later and Jacob and Miranda both opened up on the incoming insane Cerberus personnel. It didn't take long for the other feral humans to notice the new threat and come charging towards him, but this time he wasted no time in taking them down with accurate shots to the head.

The last feral guard fell a minute later, and Shepard slowly lowered his rifle, looking around at all the dead bodies with regret.

A moment later he heard a voice call out from the entrance to the ship. "Hey, who's out there?"

Swallowing once more he took off at a light jog towards the ship. "I'm Commander Shepard. What's been going on around here?"

"Shepard?" The voice asked incredulously before muttering something that he couldn't make out. A moment later and a tall, well built man stepped out from around the ramp. The man saluted as he saw him. "Samuel Michaels. Am I glad to see someone here."

"Michaels." Shepard nodded in greeting. "What the hell happened here?"

The Cerberus soldier sighed "Hell if I know for sure. I just know that a bunch of people went insane. And ended up killing everyone except me. They really seemed to want to get in here. I'm guessing it has to do with that person who's in stasis in there." He said, motioning up into the ship.

"Do you know who it is in there?" Shepard asked wondering if he knew anything new as he started walking up the ramp into the ship. .

The Ex-Alliance soldier shook his head. "I don't know who, or even what race he is. He looks human, but is wearing some kind of robe and mask, and the stasis chamber he's in prevents us from getting any readings from scans. I'm almost completely sure that he's the source of this insanity. If he's not then something in this ship is. I'd suggest we destroy it."

"Hmm." The ramp led up into a small room that he guessed could be an airlock of some kind. A corridor on the right wall of the room curved towards the front of the ship into a large room with some kind of device sitting in the middle of it. On either side of the room were two doors that opened into corridors while in the three other corners of the room where additional doors, two of which led into smaller rooms and the third led into another corridor. The angular design of the interior, coupled with the red lighting put Shepard on edge.

"The stasis chamber is over there." Michaels said motioning towards the room in the opposite corner of the corridor that led out.

Taking one last look around the ship, Shepard stepped towards the room in question, holstering his shotgun as he did so. Looking in he saw, tucked away in the corner to his right a rather normal looking bed, while directly ahead of him was what looked like some kind of glass tube, with rings of energy emanating from the top and bottom of the tube. Floating in the middle of the tube, arms spread out slightly to its side, head raised as if staring up at the ceiling was what could definitely be a human man. He was wearing black robes with black armored chestplate, that by Shepard's standards looked to be too light to stop any kind of weapons fire. Vicious looking spikes protruded from his gauntlets. His head was covered in a helmet, the mask of which had a distinct T-shape visor with various strange runes inscribed upon it. Just looking at the menacing feature of the mask caused Shepard to shiver involuntarily. He wasn't sure if it was just a side effect of the design of the ship and the figure floating unnaturally in the stasis tube, but he could almost feel a malevolent, dark and oppressive presence watching. he shivered slightly, as it seemed that the temperature dropped a few degrees.

"Do you feel that?" Michaels muttered beside him. "That cold, dark feeling?"

Shepard nodded "Have you felt it before?"

"I- Growing darkness… Smothering- So cold." Shepard glanced sharply over at Michaels who had started shivering violently.

"Michaels what's the matter?" he asked watching in growing horror as the man continued muttering to himself.

"Choking, no light. So cold…-" Michaels suddenly fell silent, the violent shaking stopping and he stood still for a moment before his mouth opened once more to speak.

"Ahh. Finally it works." The voice that emanated from his mouth had changed completely. No longer was it filled with slight panic and exhaustion, it was completely calm, taking on a honeyed, modulated tone that put Shepard on edge. Michaels eyes, which had closed earlier opened, causing Shepard to gasp and stumble backward in shock. The previously ice blue eyes of Michaels had taken on an extremely sickly yellow color that looked completely unnatural on a human. "Well, hello there. I don't think we've been introduced." Michaels smirked, the expression looking almost predatory on his face.

Shepard drew his pistol in one swift motion, aiming it at Michaels, pushing his fear aside as he realized that it was no longer Michaels that was talking to him. "Who are you? And what did you do with Michaels?"

"Oh, Michaels has taken a… leave of absence." He informed him dismissively "As for who I am, you may call me Darth Nox." He paused for a moment, glancing at the pistol that was aimed squarely at his head. "And do put that down. You wouldn't want anyone to get hurt now would you?" He asked amused.

"I don't care who you are. Let Michaels go right now." he ordered, keeping his pistol aimed steadily at the man.

An ugly angry look suddenly crossed his face and before Shepard could react he violently waved his hand towards him and he was suddenly blasted backward by an invisible force. "I am sith, Human. No one gives me orders!"

Shepard gasped as he slammed into the wall his eyesight darkened for a brief second as his head collided with the wall. Shaking his head he noticed that Miranda and Jacob had also been blasted back into the wall beside him and that Michaels had walked over to the stasis tube where the figure was still floating. "What do you want? he coughed slowly getting back to his feet.

Michaels glanced over at him "I wish to break my chains, commander Shepard."

Shepard watched in slight confusion as Michaels started tapping on a holographic interface that had appeared when he approached. His eyes widened as he realized what he was doing. "Michaels! Why are you-" he broke off mid sentence when Michaels fell to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut, apparently finished inputting his commands. The low hum that had permeated the room spiked for a second and then faded away at the same time as the rings of energy.

"Michaels!" Scrambling forward shepard grabbed his unresponsive body and dragged him back away from the stasis chamber that was obviously shutting down. Dropping him off next to Miranda he motioned for the Cerberus operative to aid Michaels as he turned his attention back to the stasis chamber just in time to see the figure fall to the ground, dropping to one knee. he raised his pistol instinctively at the masked person as he stood back up and stepped out of the chamber.

"We went over this, before Commander. I suggest you lower your weapon."

Shepard normally wasn't one to succumb to fear or threats, yet for some reason, when this "Darth Nox" as he demanded he be called, ordered him to lower his pistol, he couldn't help but lower it shakily for a moment before calling up his inner strength and raising it once more. "Maybe you should ask nicely." he said glaring at the masked figure in front of him.

A dark chuckle sounded from the man as he slowly raised his hood, which shrouded his entire mask in darkness, leaving only the lower part visible in the dark lighting. "You are lucky, Commander Shepard. I've killed people for merely approaching me."

"I'd like to see you try and kill me." he challenged disgusted at hearing about how casually the man had talked about killing people.

"It would be so easy." He hissed starting to slowly prowl around him. "Crush your throat, suffocate you. Drive you insane, make you kill your friends before killing yourself. Crush you underneath a rock. Or just plain old electrocution. So many ways to murder someone." Nox stopped his walking and stood staring directly at Shepard. he could feel his gaze, even through his mask piercing his very being. "Yes. I can feel your fear. You hide it well but it grows ever stronger. You fear me, yet you also fear something else. Tell me, Shepard. What are these Reapers that haunt your mind."

Shepard narrowed his eyes as the man in front of him spoke. "Are you reading my mind?" he asked incredulously. he had never heard of something like the power that this man had. He seemed to have some kind of power that let him throw things around like biotics, but if what this man was saying now, he could also get into people's mind.

"Not so much reading as merely listening in." He mused, the words not fitting well with his tone. "But you changed the subject. What are these reapers?"

"Why would you care about what they are?" Shepard challenged. "Why would you care what haunts poor little me?"

"Well I could care less for your own fears. However I am unfortunately in this galaxy now. And by the look of my ship it's been severely ravaged by incompetents and is in no position to get me out of here. So since I am trapped here I have to know who to kill and these Reapers sound like the prime target."

"Fine. If you're so interested. The Reapers are extremely advanced artificial intelligent starships that come every fifty thousand years to wipe out all civilization."

"Interesting. What about these collectors? What are they?"

Shepard winced as he was suddenly assaulted by memories of his death at the mention of the Collectors.

"Well well well. What is this? Death? How curious. You are full of suprises Shepard. Full of them. very intriguing. And now you are hunting these Collectors. I wonder." He trailed off into silence for a moment until finally turning his focus back on Shepard. "I have a…. proposition for you commander. I will join your ship's crew and help you destroy these… collectors. You will find that my powers will be of great value to you."

Shepard's eyes widened in surprise, whatever he had thought he would say it was definitely not this. "You expect me to just let you join my crew, after having seen you drive everyone here insane?"

"Yes. You don't know the true extent of my power. I can crush these collectors and anyone who stands in my path. I have witnessed galactic war first hand. I have fought on many battlefields against many enemies. You need my aid Shepard. I have foreseen it."

"Oh you have foreseen it? I suppose you can see into the future now?" Shepard asked scathingly.

"Yes. The force gives me the ability to peer into the future. Cut through the clouds of the present to witness the future. And I can assure you that should you decide to… leave me behind, you will fail. Your galaxy will fall to fire and ruin and in your final hour you will look back to this day and wish you had accepted my offer."

"I don't believe you. No one can see the future."

"Then let me show you for yourself." Nox said as it seemed like the temperature in the room dropped another ten degrees and he felt the overwhelming presence of darkness envelop his mind. his vision darkened until it looked like he was looking through a tunnel of dark saw himself fighting the strange buglike creatures that he recognized to be collectors. He saw himself fighting massive, four legged floating creatures with human husk heads in its mouth as it shrieked and fired a massive energy beam at him. He saw himself leading a team of shadowy figures in a dark hive, fighting more collectors. He saw a large station explode. He saw the arrival of the reapers. He saw himself leading team after team against the reapers in futile as the reapers continued gaining ground and watched as more and more people died until finally he was standing on a barren wasteland, surrounded by everyone he ever knew, watching as hundreds of reapers descended upon them and as the reapers all fired as one. Finally he felt himself be wrenched back into reality, gasping for air as Miranda and Jacob both questioned if he were alright.

"And this is the future?" he asked hesitantly.

The hooded, masked figure infront of him nodded. "It is the future that you will face should you decline my proposal."

"Shepard!" he turned his stunned gaze to Miranda. "Are you alright? What did he do to you?"

"He showed me the future." he mumbled in shock, at what had just occurred. Slowly he turned to face Nox "Very well. I accept your proposal."

"Shepard! You can't do that. This man is a complete unknown, he's dangerous you can't let him on the Normandy."

"This is my decision Ms. Lawson. The Illusive man put me in charge of this mission and I feel that we will need the skills of Nox on our mission."

Miranda Lawson watched worriedly as Commander Shepard and man known as Darth Nox shook hands. Normally she would have jumped at the chance to bring someone of Nox's obvious power on board to help take down the collectors, but she couldn't help but feel uneasy at the way he talked. Not to mention how he was a complete unknown to him. She remembered how dismissive he had been about taking possessing Michaels, how casually he had talked about killing them. How he said that he had killed people for merely approaching him. The confidence and arrogance that seeped off of him, how he didn't seem to regard them as a threat in any way, yet didn't give the impression of underestimating their skills. Miranda shivered unconsciously as Nox's helmet turned slightly to stare at him. The intimidating mask forcing him to avert his gaze from him.

"Come on. Lets go." Shepard ordered finally holstering his pistol and started to walk out of the ship.

"There are some artifacts that I must take with me." Nox said walking out toward a different part of the ship. Curious despite herself Miranda slowly followed him to a large room that seemed to be some kind of storage room. By the time she looked into the room Nox was standing in the middle of it, with multiple objects floating already around him and a couple of boxes started floating up towards him as well. She watched in awe all the objects started to float around him, marveling at his control.

She had never seen or even heard of biotics having this level of control as he saw several smaller objects float towards a box that opened as they approached and closed once they had been deposited inside them. Finally the last crate closed with a sharp click and Nox strode out of the room, ignoring Miranda as he walked past her, crates still floating behind him.

* * *

 _A/N:_ _Well there you go, the first chapter of this fic. Now I plan on having this run all the way past Mass Effect 3. As for what kind of Sith Nox is, i.e if he's a Sorcerer or an Assassin, I kinda made him a hybrid of the two. His focus is definitely a Sorcerer, he mainly fights with the force, he is a master in all the aspects of the dark side. And he isn't just a master in one aspect of the force, like Lightning, Madness, Corruption or t_ _elekinesis_ _, but I've made him be extremely profficient in all of them with a definite mastery in all the uses of Force lightning. He's no where near as good as the dread master in the arts of Madness but he is more than proficient in its use, as seen here in this chapter. Corruption as a "healing" art is definitely revamped. Its going to be alot more about sacrificing one for another. In order to heal a wound with the dark side life will need to be sacrificed in return. Now thats not to say that its going to be a force power that he can just use mid combat to heal himself and kill an enemy. Its going to require a ritual and some actualy effort._

 _Oh and while Nox will definitely be extremely powerful in the field of combat, he is a Dark Lord of the Sith after all, he's not just going to be able to go around murdering everyone and subjugating the galaxy on his own. He'd be killed pretty quickly on his own, no matter how powerful a sith you are, if an entire army goes up against him by himself he will die. He's going to need to gather an army and use intrigue and guile to aid him. And he will have some definite weaknesses to prevent this from becoming "Darth Nox stomps everyone into the ground and is now emperor of the galaxy. The end." Fic. There will be setbacks, there will be times that Nox gets beaten, where his plans fail. But there will also be times that his plans work flawlessly and he annhiliates enemies. A good mix of everything._

 _Well I could continue with much more but I'm going to stop here. One thing that I do want to say is that do not expect this to be a very regularly updated fic. My focus will be on NE at least until NE1 is finished. I may take a break, write up good sizable stockpile of NE2 before I post that. I also might decide to release a couple of my other fics but I'm not gonna promise anything._

 _Well thats me done, like I said don't expect this to be updated regularly but I do have a couple of chapters just about done that I may end up posting sometime soonish. Let me know what you guys think, is it good, bad or just meh. It really helps me out if I get some feedback. Until next time._

 _~LEGION_


	2. Chapter 2

_So with Episode VII coming out in 24 hours (For me at least) I decided to release the second chapter of Mass Effect: Deception. Now like I said in the first chapter don't expect any regular updates from here on out. It might be a week before I update next, it might be a month, or even two I really can't say at this time._

 _Additionally something happens in this chapter that might seem to be very out of the blue and crazy, but its the nature of Nox. He plans extensively but to an outside viewer it might seem like he is acting extremely chaotically. Anyway I'm gonna stop with the A/N and get right to it._

 _Thanks to all the readers who reviewed. They were very appreciated._

* * *

Darth Nox, Dark Lord of the Sith strode into the room that he had been led to upon first boarding the ship, Normandy. Reaching the back of the room he turned to face the three humans who had followed him in. Shepard was standing directly opposite him, at the other end of the table while the other two humans took their places on either side of him. The female human, Nox believed that her name was Miranda, took half a step forward.

"Welcome to the Normandy. I apologize but unfortunately we do not know much about you, so we cannot accurately judge your usefulness on this mission."

The Dark Lord's eyes narrowed as he glared furiously at the human woman, a pulse of rage at her insult flooded through the Sith and he almost shocked the woman for her impudence however at the last moment he stopped himself, instead merely letting his anger manifest in a dark purple mist that began to slowly flow from his body. The eyes of the three humans in front of him widened as they took an unconscious step backward. "It would appear that I am in a galaxy of primitives who cannot even act their place." He hissed angrily.

The two humans on either side of Shepard seemed to bristle angrily at that, but before they could say anything the black haired soldier gave them both a sharp look as he turned back to Nox. "You've mentioned something along those lines before. And judging by the technology found on your ship is it safe to assume that you are from a different galaxy entirely?"

Nox rolled his eyes unseen underneath his mask, but was careful to make sure to not show any further annoyance. He needed to play his cards perfectly if he was to bring the plan he was still coming up with to fruition. Instead, he nodded "I come from a completely different galaxy. Do not ask me which one, I do not know. Not yet at least. Civilization spans most of my galaxy, with millions of different planets and many different alien species. There are many different governments throughout the galaxy, but the two most powerful are the Sith Empire" He said proudly before spitting out the name of his enemy "and the Galactic Republic." He raised a hand in warning "Don't let its name fool you, the Republic is filled with the corrupt, the greedy. The weak. They and the Jedi were the ones that committed mass genocide against my people a thousand years before I… left. It was in the Great Hyperspace war that the Republic attacked us on our homeworld of Korriban. When we retaliated we were declared invaders by the corrupt Jedi who sent their republic hounds after us. Unfortunately the Republic outnumbered us and we were driven back and the Jedi and Republic killed every sith they could get their hands on. Eventually they believed us to be extinct, eradicated by their hand. But we proved them wrong. Refugees escaped the Republic genocide and eventually settled on Dromund Kaas. There we waited, we rebuilt. For over a thousand years we prepared ourselves until eventually we were strong enough. Then we returned to the galaxy to extract our vengeance for the genocide they committed. We won the first war, signing a treaty with the republic. Yet in the years after the republic continued to show themselves for the corrupt dogs they are. They secretly planned for war and eventually they attacked us, they tore the treaty they signed to shreds in an unprovoked attack upon the Empire." Nox's voice hardened with fury and rage as he talked about the events that would happen after "The second great war lasted for many years and it was during this war that I was betrayed. One of my… subordinates led me into an ambush where an entire host of Jedi ambushed and eventually defeated me. Yet proving themselves to weak to kill me, they trapped me in stasis, put me aboard my ship and cast me adrift. I do not know how long I drifted in space before I was found and brought to the facility where you found me." Nox finished his abridged and heavily modified history staring directly at Shepard.

He had to admit, his plans had changed drastically when he has awoken and faced Shepard in person. At first he had planned on either just killing or capturing the three humans, taking their shuttle and leave to hide in the shadows of the galaxy in order to learn more. But when he had freed himself from stasis he felt something that made him stop. Shepard was a powerful fighter and was rather well known to the galaxy. As such he would be a great asset to his plans. Nox would only have to purge him of his compassion but he was a master at that and would especially enjoy corrupting someone as pure as Shepard. However it would take time, but Nox was patient. Certainly there were times when his patience could run out rather quickly, but when it mattered he could wait years. He quickly purged his mind free of other thoughts as Shepard finally responded to his tale.

"So are the Sith and Jedi certain species within your galaxy?"

Nox shook his head. "Not quite. The Jedi and Sith are two groups of the galaxy that use the force. The powers that you have witnessed me use." he said bringing his left hand up and letting lightning crackle and surround it. "Yet at the same time, the Sith are a species of the galaxy."

The human man, Jacob he believed the man was called, furrowed his eyebrows "So which are you? The organization or the species?"

Nox smirked as he raised his hands to his mask and slowly took it off "Both." He took great pleasure in seeing the looks of surprise on the three humans' faces as he plucked a couple of stray thoughts from their minds. "You are surprised by how much I look like a human?" He asked, smirking. Like all Pureblood Sith, Nox had the same basic facial structure as humans, yet unlike humans his skin was a crimson red which was the most obvious trait of him being a Sith. Unlike some purebloods however, he did not have as many visible bone spurs protruding from his face, with only two spurs protruding out from his eyebrows. Smaller ridges ran along his cheekbones, chin, forehead and neck, further enhancing the natural predatorial look of Pureblood Sith. He wore golden jewelry with symbols inscribed upon it that was fused with his skin starting on the bridge of his nose and leading up between his eyes to his forehead. Amber eyes, ringed by black seemed to glow slightly with a sinister yellow light. And hair, unseen by the humans at the moment due to his hood, black with tinges of dark red scattered about the messy strands.

"The Sith and humans are the primary population of the Empire." He continued without waiting for a response, dropping yet another fact upon the humans that they had not yet known. He was rewarded once more by expressions of shock.

"Humans?" Miranda asked disbelievingly.

Nox nodded "Oh yes, did I forget to mention that humans are very common in my galaxy and there are many different types of species that evolved from humans. But I believe that we have wasted enough time on these trivialities. I sense that you have only just begun this mission of yours to hunt the collectors. Tell me, what have you learned so far?"

Shepard recovered rather quickly to the Sith's sudden change of topic. "We learned that the collectors are responsible for a series of attacks on human colonies that started two years ago. The collectors abduct all the people on these colonies without leaving much of a trace. We were only able to learn that the collectors were infact responsible for the attacks when we went to Freedoms Progress, a recently attacked colony and found a quarian survivor who had used the colony's surveillance systems to record the collectors. We also learned that the collectors use seeker swarms to paralyse the inhabitants to allow for the abductions to take place without a trace."

Miranda continued "The Illusive man has given us six dossiers to begin building our team with. We were supposed to pick up Samuel Michaels at the facility that we found you at, but you killed him."

"And who is this Illusive Man?"

"He is the leader of Cerberus, an organization dedicated to the betterment of humanity."

"I would very much like to meet this Illusive Man." Nox's his tone made sure to let them know that this was not up for discussion. However it seemed like Miranda either ignored his not so subtle order, or didn't register it.

"If the Illusive Man wishes to speak with you then you may speak with him other wise-" Nox snarled in anger as he suddenly raised a hand an unleashed a blast of lightning at the woman. The blast lasted less than a second, yet still caused Miranda to let a pained scream loose.

"Let me rephrase that so that a worm such as you can understand. You will get me in contact with the Illusive Man immediately." He hissed, ignoring the alarmed shouts from the other two humans. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Hey! Hey!" Shepard shouted stepping up to Nox threateningly "You can't just electrocute and threaten my crew members like that!"

He merely raised an eyebrow "Do you honestly mean to tell me that you trust these people?"

"Whether I trust them or not, that doesn't give you permission to torture people like that." he hissed. "In fact I'm seriously considering dropping you off at the nearest alliance base."

"But you won't. You need my abilities against the Collectors or you will fail." Mentioning the 'vision' that he had let Shepard see. He had of course modified the vision so that it seemed that his aid was required for Shepard to succeed.

Shepard narrowed his eyes. "Yeah, I'm not so sure about that vision anymore. How do I know that you didn't just make it up in order to get on my ship?"

Nox shrugged "Why would I? It would gain me nothing. If I wanted to escape from that facility I could have done so through many different ways. I would have killed you and stolen your shuttle.. I would then be completely free to do what I wished. No, you require my abilities Shepard."

Keeping his eyes narrowed Shepard studied the Dark Lord for a few moments. "Maybe. But you still haven't told us exactly what your abilities are. You don't expect me to believe that you will be relying completely on this "force" What weapons will you be using?"

Now it was Nox's time to narrow his eyes at Shepard "I have fought many battles relying almost completely upon the Dark Side. I do not need any weapons that you have."

Shepard rolled his eyes. "Look, I am going to insist that you take some kind of weapon with you. In my experience it is foolish to rely completely on one's powers."

"Oh, but I have my own weapon. I do not need such primitive weapons when I have my lightsaber." As he spoke, he used the force to unhook his lightsaber from his belt and sent it floating up between him and Shepard where he grabbed it with his hand and activated it. The purple blade erupted from the emitter with the usual _snap-hiss_. Spinning it around carelessly he gave Shepard a mocking salute before letting go and letting it float in mid air, still humming dangerously.

"A sword?" The black skinned man asked incredulously. "What good is a sword, even an energy sword against a gun?"

"To those untrained in its use and to those unable to use the force? Useless. But to a sith, it gives me an advantage over all except for another Sith or a Jedi."

Shepard crossed his arms, still extremely skeptical. "Really? Well we have a saying, Don't bring a knife to a gunfight. So unless you can block shots with that fancy sword there we're still going to have a problem."

Kallig smirked, "Oh but I can."

A single raised eyebrow displayed Shepard's continued skepticism.

"And I'll show you. Shoot me." He said taking his lightsaber in his hands and sinking into a defensive soresu form. While he wasn't very skilled at soresu, he was more than capable of using it to block ranged weapons. "I know you have a hidden weapon Shepard. Use it."

"Are you insane? We're on a ship, you expect me to fire a live weapon at you in a spaceborne ship?"

"I prefer the term 'differently rational'. And come now that excuse is one of the feeblest I have ever heard. If your engineers made this ship in such a way that it couldn't handle internal weapons fire then you should execute your engineers for their failure. " Seeing that Shepard was still not drawing the pistol he knew he had, Nox began to goad him. "Come now Commander. Take your weapon. Use it. Shoot me. Or are you afraid that you will miss?"

The man rolled his eyes. "I don't have anything to prove to you. I know my own abilities very well thank you very much."

"Ah yes. You don't have anything to prove. But you want to know my abilities. I am very confident in my own skills. If I could not block a few shots from you here, then I would deserve the pain that would come with being shot. Come Shepard. Or are you too weak. Perhaps your fears are actually true. You are just a pawn to be used and get thrown away when people are done with you. Thats what the council did after all."

"Shut up. If you really want to get shot at then we'll go down to the firing range and use safe equipment."

"You really are a good little pawn aren't you? Always toeing the line, doing what is expected of you, following your orders blindly. Why even your little lover, Williams was it? Yes Ashley Williams. I'm sure that she too has just abandoned you after-"

A warning from the force, a sudden movement and his lightsaber was already moving to intercept the shot that was fired a moment later. A flash of light and the violet blade completely disintegrated the metal shard that Shepard had fired at the sith. Kallig's lips stretched into a gleeful smile as Shepard glared at the sith.

"Shepard. I have detected a weapons discharge in the communications room." A female disembodied voice sounded over the intercom.

Shepard started for a moment breaking eye contact with Nox as he looked down at the gun in his hand in shock for a moment. "Shepard?" Miranda stepped closer to the commander who had yet to answer.

He took a deep breath and looked up "It's alright EDI. Our new team member was merely demonstrating his skills. Do we have somewhere where Nox can stay, preferably somewhere out of the way where he won't be bothered?"

"Perhaps the port observation deck?" EDI suggested.

"That will be sufficient. Now, I wish to speak with the Illusive man." Nox said turning to Miranda.

"The Illusive Man has in fact requested to a meeting with you." EDI said before Miranda could respond.

"Excellent. Then there will be no problems. The rest of you may leave." He motioned for the three humans to leave.

Miranda was the first to leave, walking shakily out of the room, followed closely by Jacob. Shepard gave Nox one last hard look before turning and striding out.

The Dark Lord crossed his arms as the table slowly sank into the floor. Making sure to lower his hood so it cast the rest of his face in shadow he stepped forward onto the lowered table he waited as a holographic cylinder raised from the floor scanning his body and movements. A few seconds later the holographic figure of an elderly human sitting in a chair, fizzed into existence in front of him. Giving a slight sneer at the primitive technology Kallig studied the man in front of him carefully.

"The Illusive Man I presume."

* * *

 _ **Nwûl tash. Dzwol shâsotkun. Shâsotjontû châtsatul nu tyûk. Tyûkjontû châtsatul nu midwan.**_

* * *

Nox sat on the floor, legs folded underneath him hands resting perpendicular on his thighs, as he let the sweet cold embrace dark side fill him, he pondered the future. His talk with the Illusive Man had gone well. Their ideologies were compatible enough for now and Nox knew that cerberus would be extremely useful for his plans in the future. Therefore Nox had made a deal that the Illusive man couldn't resist. A deal that would cement his position in the galaxy, an asset that would be of much use to the Dark Lord.

He sensed the individual approaching and before he could knock on his door he triggered the opening mechanism with the force, letting it slide open infront of the man who hesitated for a second before walking in. "Commander Shepard."

"Nox. We're going to be arriving at Omega soon and I figured that you can accompany us and provide us with a demonstration of your abilities."

A sadistic smile crept onto the Sith's face as his eyes opened in the dim red lighting "I'm always looking for a reason to cause some Chaos."

"I'm sure. We're arriving in thirty minutes. Don't be late."

* * *

 _ **Midwanjontû châtsatul nu asha. Ashajontû kotswinot itsu nuyak. Wonoksh Qyâsik nun.**_

* * *

If there was one thing that Nox learned within five minutes of arriving on Omega, it was that he hated it. The aliens that walked around, the dirt. He despised it, as he let his hatred simmer, just bubbling beneath the surface of his mind, waiting to be unleashed on the next person to draw his ire. As he walked past a massive quadruped alien bouncer into the entryway to the club afterlife where they were apparently going to meet the 'ruler' of Omega, Aria he spotted a couple batarians as he recalled Shepard calling them, ugly humanoid creatures with four eyes sitting on a bench at the side watching the group enter. A disgusted sneer grew on his face as he regarded the batarians for a moment as Shepard walked past them. The batarians, unable to see his smirk due to his mask, obviously still noticed the look as they all stood up and walked into Kallig's path.

"What are you looking at?" the lead batarian's tone was confrontational, obviously trying to get a rise out of him.

"Three pathetic worms." Nox answered shortly slowing to a stop.

The lead batarian took a step forward, cracking his knuckles "Who are you calling a worm? You looking for trouble? Well you humans are all the same. Always strutting about like you own the place. Well let me tell you something, human. We're going to be doing the galaxy a favor today. When we're done with you, no one will be able to recognize your face ever again."

A sadistic grin appeared on the Sith's face as he released his hold on his rage. "Is that right? Well I can tell you know that you won't be recognizing anyone soon. Pathetic four eyed beast."

The batarian gave a shout of anger and stepped forward, fist raising for a powerful punch. Before he could do more than raise his fist however, Nox's left hand rose out in front of him as he channeled the dark side down his arm and lightning burst forth arcing from his fingertips at the batarian in front of him, sending him falling backward, convulsing as the electricity ravaged his body. The other two batarians shouted in shock and surprise as Nox's right hand joined his left and the blast of lightning intensified, catching all three batarians and sending them screaming to the ground where they writhed as Nox continued to shock them. He continued the electrocution, intentionally drawing out their deaths by reducing the amount of power he sent at them. The lightning contrasted sharply with the orange that was dominant here . Out of the corner of his eyes Nox saw Shepard and Miranda watching in horror as he slowly tortured the batarians to death. The leader was the first to fall silent, the electricity finally proving to be too much for him and he passed out. The other two fell unconscious shortly after and Nox continued his assault for one last second, bringing his full power to bear which quickly and almost instantly killed the three batarians.

Ceasing his assault, he started walking forward, carelessly throwing the bodies to the side as he approached them.

"Did you have to do that?" Shepard hissed angrily as he approached. "We're trying to not draw too much attention right now."

Nox shrugged carelessly "Of course I did. They attacked me. I only returned the favor." Nox looked squarely at Shepard "Never let an attack on you go without retribution. If you start letting attacks go unpunished then people will see you as weak. And weakness is death. Now I believe that we were supposed to talk to some asari or another?"

As Nox stared at Shepard, challenging him to say something, who merely narrowed his eyes and turned around to continue walking into the cantina, followed closely by Miranda. Smirking under his mask, Nox strolled in behind them. He released his aura when he entered, causing everyone to unconsciously glance in his direction. He tailed Shepard at his own pace, not bothering to keep up with him as he navigated his way to a set of stairs that led up to an alcove overlooking the cantina. The guards standing at the bottom of the stairs let him pass when he walked up to them and resumed their position when he and Miranda had passed. When Nox strolled up to them they stepped forward, barring his path.

"Where do you think you're-" a pulse of the dark side sent him staggering to the side, eyes dilated with fear as the Sith stalked past him.

He climbed the stairs slowly, as if he owned them until he reached the balcony that Shepard had entered to talk to the asari Aria. He walked in just as Aria seemed to be giving some kind of speech to Shepard. "I'm the boss, CEO, queen if you're feeling dramatic. it doesn't matter. Omega has no titled ruler and only one rule." the sith rolled his eyes as the asari sat down on her couch. "Don't fuck with Aria."

Nox snorted softly as Shepard smirked and nodded "I like it. Easy to remember."

"If you forget, Someone will remind you." The threat was obvious in her words.

"Sounds good to me. I'm looking for Mordin Solus. Know where he might be?"

"The Salarian Doctor? Last I heard he was trying to find a cure for the plague in the quarantine zone. I always liked Mordin. He's as likely to heal you as he is to shoot you."

Shepard raised an eyebrow "How so?"

"He used to be part of the salarian STG. He's a genius and has no qualms with killing. Word of warning however, once he gets talking he never stops. If you need to find him, the quarantine zone is not that far from here. Then again it's unlikely that they'll just let you in. It is a quarantine zone of course."

"Thanks for that information. I'm also looking for Archangel. Know him?"

Aria chuckled "Know him? I doubt there's anyone on Omega who doesn't know him. You want him dead as well or are you trying to recruit him like you are Solus?"

"The latter."

"Interesting. You're going to make some enemies teaming up with Archangel. Every mercenary gang on Omega is looking for him. They haven't found him yet though. They seem to be getting closer though. I'd suggest you keep an ear out for news."

Shepard nodded "Sounds good to me."

"I must say though, you're other team member here intrigues me." Aria turned to watch the sith. "I saw your little encounter earlier. Never seen anything like that before."

The sith shrugged carelessly "I wouldn't expect a worm like you to have seen anything remotely similar to my power before."

Aria's eyes narrowed dangerously "You seem to have trouble remembering things that were said less than five minutes ago."

Nox shook his head "You will find that my memory is excellent. It's the 'caring' part that I have trouble with." The words had hardly left his mouth when all of Aria's guards suddenly drew and aimed their weapons threateningly at the Dark Lord.

"I apologise for my companion. He is uh new around here." Shepard interjected trying to head of the inevitable fight that would break out if this argument continued. A small part of Shepard's mind wondered if the fight would go so badly for Nox. He pushed those thoughts from his mind and turned to glare at the Sith who hadn't heeded his warning and had continued talking.

"This galaxy is in such a sorry state. I'm surprised it's lasted this long." He muttered not reacting in the slightest to all the weapons aimed directly at him.

"Listen, whoever you are. I'm going to give you one last chance. Get the fuck out of my face, or I will throw you out the nearest airlock myself."

Nox raised an eyebrow. "An insect defeat a Sith? You are quite enamoured of yourself aren't you?"

"Kill him!" Aria shouted angrily glaring blue as she prepared to launch a biotic attack at the sith. But before anyone could do anything more than twitch a muscle Nox suddenly burst into motion, his movements augmented with the force so that he appeared little more than a blur as his lightsaber appeared in his hands, two purple blades growing from each end as he immediately threw himself into a full rotation, both blades carving three of Aria's guards into pieces before they knew what hit them. He ended his spin in a crouch just as the rest of the guards opened fire with their weapons. They however were taken completely by surprise by Nox's actions and ended up firing completely over Nox's head. Both of the sith's hands snapped out from his sides, hands forming vicious claws as they reached towards two of the four remaining guards, his lightsaber deactivating as he clasped it between his left thumb and palm. The two guards gasped for breath as they felt invisible hands closing around their necks lifting them up in the air. With a sharp violent motion, Nox crossed his arms, sending the two choking guards fly together at rapid speeds, colliding with a loud crack and intercepting the biotic blast that Aria had just sent flying at the Sith.

Releasing his hold on the two now dead guards Nox threw himself into a backwards fall, his body seemingly flying horizontally over the floor before he did a backflip to land on his feet. One of the guards, a batarian, quickly reacted firing at the Sith with his pistol. His heavy pistol bucked thrice in his hands, generally enough to penetrate most shields and kill or wound his target. But this time, the Sith, who had reacted just as he started pulling the trigger, raised his right hand in what should have been a futile attempt to block the shots with his hand only for the batarian to watch in shock as he saw the Sith not so much as flinch as the bullets should have hit him. His eyes widened as he realized that there were three shards of metal floating in front of the Dark Lord's hand. He was unable to do anything else as the shards suddenly reversed their course and hit the batarian in the chest. His shields flared up, successfully stopping the first bullet, however it merely slowed the second which as such hit his body right after the third shot. Both shards tore their way through his heart and lungs sending him to the ground.

Meanwhile Nox's left hand had started sparking as he channeled the dark side and a second later, moments after the death of the batarian he sent a bolt of lightning at the last guard in the booth who screamed as he fell to the ground dead.

In a span of five seconds, Nox had killed seven guards as if it was nothing. However Aria was nothing if not an experienced fighter. The moment that Nox had killed her two last guards he had sent another biotic blast at the Sith. Nox's attention was still on the guard that he had just electrocuted as he was fully confident that the force would warn him of any attacks sent his way in time for him to react, therefore he was rather surprised when he was suddenly and without any warning ripped from his feet and sent flying towards the asari ruler. Surprise quickly turned into rage and he let loose a massive scream, amplified by hate and rage that sent shockwaves all around him. Aria, Shepard and Miranda were caught completely by surprise by the scream that sent them flying off their feet. Shepard and Miranda were sent colliding with a wall while Aria went flying off the balcony down into the club below. Both Aria and Shepard recovered quickly enough however, Shepard quickly rolling to his feet, finally deciding that enough was enough and drew his shotgun from his back. Aria caught herself with her biotics, letting herself float safely to the ground.

Meanwhile with Aria's concentration broken, Nox landed on his feet overlooking club which was quickly emptying of civilians and filling with more and more guards.

"Give up Nox! You're outnumbered fifty to one!" Shepard shouted at the Sith's back he was exaggerating a bit, but if it got the Sith to stand down he would be fine with it.

"Numbers mean nothing to me!" A sphere of electricity seemed to form around the shrouded figure as he drew his arms and legs close to his body, ignoring gravity as he floated in in midair. A second later his arms snapped out from his body, his legs falling back towards the ground. His hands began sparking with electricity that immediately began springing down towards the ground, electricity also began emanating from his feet which shepard realized were still inches off the ground. The lightning hit the balcony underneath the Sith and vanished. The guards on the ground opened fire on the sith, but his shield of electricity merely sparked brightly with each impact. Not two seconds had passed when the air inside the club began to feel heavy, like the air feels like right before a big thunderstorm. Shepard began to feel his hair stand on edge, as if he had just become electrically charged. Shepard's eyes widened as the air near the ceiling of the club began to flash brightly. The shots hitting Nox's shield died down as the guards turned their fearful gaze up at the ceiling where the flashing lights got stronger and stronger. They had just nervously began backing up, heedless of Aria's shouts, when armageddon hit. streams of lightning began arcing from the ceiling to land in the midst of the guards. The first bolt hit four guards who fell to the ground, alongside two patrons who had ducked underneath a table when the fighting broke out. Three more guards and another four clubgoers were hit by the electricity that arced from the floor into their bodies, sending them collapsing to the ground, screaming in pain. The second bolt hit instants later, killing another six people. Then the third, and the Fourth. From where he stood, Shepard was unable to see the people dying, but he did see the bolts of lightning, and hear the screams of those unlucky enough to not be instantly killed.

Hearing the screams, Shepard did the first thing he thought of. he biotically charged the sith. he smashed into the sith, the impact breaking through his shield and sending him flying off the balcony down towards the ground. Shepard tried to stifle a cry of pain as lightning surged through his body, a side effect of him physically hitting the shield of electricity and coming in contact with the lighting that was streaming down the sith's body. The interruption did however almost immediately stop the unnatural storm that had formed inside afterlife as the sith twisted in midair and landed safely on the ground, seemingly none the worse for wear. As he landed he brought his fist, wreathed in a dark purple mist, smashing down onto the ground where it exploded with the force of a small bomb, sending everything nearby flying away from him. Nox stood there, in the middle of the club, surveying the carnage he had wreaked. Bodies lay strewn about him many of them guards others civilians who had unfortunately chosen today to visit arias club. Most of the bodies were dead, a few were still alive though, their moans starting to fill the club from where they lay. Aria slowly got to her feet, glaring at the sith with hate.

"Ahhh." Nox rolled his shoulders releasing a satisfied breath. "Well that was fun. Nothing like starting things off with a little Murder and Mayhem." He turned to face Shepard who was still up on the balcony looking down at him. "I won't kill you Shepard. I will have need of you later. Just as I won't kill you, 'Queen of Omega'. But for now I will leave. I have things to destroy, people to torture." And with that the sith suddenly disappeared in a small cloud of purple mist that fell to the floor, forming a thin layer over the floor. The Survivors of Nox's attack stared in fear, shock and rage at the space that the Sith had been in a moment before. Unseen to them the cloaked figure of Darth Nox exited afterlife through the still open doors, walking past the bodies of the Batarian's he had killed when entering the club and out the main doors where more of Aria's guards were keeping the civilians away from the entrance. At complete ease Nox navigated the streets of Omega, using a newly acquired Omni-tool until he arrived at a nondescript building in the middle of an apartment complex. Without hesitation Nox walked up and triggered the opening mechanism with the force, making it slide open as he approached. Walking through he stopped cloaking himself with the force and let the door slide closed behind him.

"What the-" A man rushed into the hallway that Nox had just entered, a gun held in his hand that he held raised for a moment before lowering it as he saw who had just entered. "I assume you're the one who we are supposed to be on the lookout for?"

The sith nodded "That is correct. Have you retrieved my artifacts from the Normandy?"

The man collapsed his pistol and stuck it into his waistband. "I have agents doing so right now."

"Excellent. I hope they will be careful. I would be most displeased if any of those artifacts were to be damaged."

"Don't you worry sir. The Illusive Man made it very clear that those artifacts were to be treated with the utmost caution."

"Yes. Now I wish to speak with the Illusive Man."

"Of course. If you would follow me, I will take you to communications room."

The Sith lord followed the cerberus agent through the safe house. The building only had a few other agents there at the moment, the others were no doubt out doing other things, including getting Nox's items from the Normandy. He stepped in the circle that served as the method of holocommunication with a slight sneer on his face as he took off his mask, hooking it to his belt.

"Illusive Man. I have had my fun with Aria and I left Shepard's ship. The plan may now continue uninterrupted."

"Excellent. My team has begun work on your ship. They will learn what they can and fix what is damaged."

"Good. I will begin my work on this station. I will require all the information on mercenaries, bounty hunters, criminals- the scum of the galaxy. They will be very useful assets. Prioritise the ones on Omega first, since that is where I am right now." Nox instructed.

"And what exactly will you do with this information?" The Cerberus Leader inquired.

Nox smirked "I will approach them, manipulate them. Soon they will all follow my orders, even if they are not aware of the others. They will no longer be under the command of outside parties, we cannot afford to have them be working against us when the reapers arrive."

"Very well. I suggest that you hurry however. Currently the three major mercenary groups are trying to kill archangel, the turian dossier on Shepard's list. I'm confident that the mercenaries will be severely bloodied once Shepard is done with them."

"Then I suggest that you send me the information quickly."

"It's been sent. Good luck with your investigation Nox."

"There is no such thing as luck, merely power and the will to use it." Nox scoffed as he turned and walked out of the comm room. Where he found the same agent from before waiting for him who led him to a terminal that had the information he was requiring, on it.

Contrary to what some people whispered about him in the Empire, Darth Nox had never been one to just sit back and let others do the delicate work for him. Not all of it anyway, on his rise up to power, he had been the true brains behind most of his moves after he had forced his former master into the body of his dashade, Khem Val. He always was the one to see how a situation could be of use to him and how to properly capitalize on it. It was what ultimately let him defeat Thanaton in the Kaggath. Therefore it didn't take long for him to have a plan in place that would let him capitalize on the mercenary structure and the imminent attack they would face from Shepard. The blood pack would be the easiest, but also the most boring to take control over. They could also wait. Eclipse was going to be more interesting. But they could wait. It was the Blue Suns that he planned to strike at first. And as Nox stood and left the Cerberus safe house, robes billowing around him, he knew that by the time the day was over, the Blue suns on Omega would be under new leadership, his own.

* * *

 _So there it was, yes it might seem very chaotic but there is a method to Nox's madness. It will become clear in later chapters. And there is a reason why I had Nox first be picked up by Shepard and pretend to be willing to join his crew. Nox will now set out to create his powerbase within the new galaxy. Galaxy beware, Murder and Mayhem awaits._


	3. Chapter 3

Nox stood maskless in the darkened apartment, hood raised as he stared at the front door. It had been pathetically easy to sneak into the appartment, now he was just waiting for his target to walk through the door that he was watching. He could feel the Blue Suns commander approaching through the force and he clasped his hands behind him, standing tall as he made sure that his face would be well hidden in darkness. Not a minute later the door slid open with a soft hiss and a woman with short red hair entered, clad in blue armor with the symbol of the Blue Suns emblazoned on it. As the door slid shut behind her she released an annoyed sigh and triggered the lights. The room was immediately lit by the lights on the ceiling and she strode forward towards the kitchen, at first not seeing the figure shrouded in black standing in front of the window. A second later she froze and her gaze locked onto the Sith Lord.

"Who the hell are you and how did you get in here." She demanded, hand reaching for her pistol.

The Sith stepped forward amber eyes gleaming from underneath his hood. "I'm here to make you the offer of your life."

She leaned back, her hand continuing to rest on her pistol "Is that so?"

"Oh yes. I know how Tarak is getting older. Making mistakes. Not to mention how short sighted he is as he runs the Blue Suns into the ground and you know it."

She narrowed her eyes "Is Tarak testing my loyalty? Is that what this is?"

A deep ominous laugh sounded from the sith. "Oh you don't need to worry about that. I presume you heard about my handiwork in Afterlife a few hours ago?"

"That was you?" She exclaimed, eyes widening in surprise and some fear.

"I'm pretty sure I did say 'My Handiwork'."

She swallowed nervously "So what- uh -what was it you wanted with me? Uh sir?"

Nox's lips curved into a sinister smile. "At least you know who to be respectful too. But the proper way to address me would be with 'my lord'. Now, how would you like to be in charge of the Blue Suns?"

It intrigued Nox by how quickly she regained control over her shocked features. "I- My lord… Even if Tarak were to… die, he has other lieutenants who would not just allow me to take over. Then again you probably already thought about that already.. But then even if they would or would be removed from the equation, well many of the suns would not willingly follow me. In their minds I'd be too new, to naive. No matter how much I've already done for them." She muttered.

"I think they would. If you can prove yourself to them."

"I assume that you have a way of doing so my lord?"

"You assume correctly. But first you must decide. Will you accept my offer to become the leader of the Blue Suns and when I oust Aria from her pathetic little seat in afterlife, act as my voice on Omega?"

"You plan on going against Aria herself?" She asked shocked.

"Plan nothing. I have already gone against Aria."

"Oh right good point." She muttered falling silent for a minute as she mulled over his offer. Nox allowed her, turning to gaze out of the window at the orange lit streets of Omega. Finally she spoke up. "If you help make me the leader of the Suns and later Queen of Omega, then I and all my forces will serve you loyally."

"Excellent. Stay true to your oath and I shall reward you. However, fail or betray me and you will beg me to kill you."

She bowed her head "Of course, my lord."

"Now, how would you like to be the person to find the headquarters of the group that has been responsible for the deaths of so many of the mercenaries and criminals here on omega. How would you like to be the one to find Archangel?"

* * *

 _ **Nwûl tash. Dzwol shâsotkun.**_

* * *

Things were finally looking up for Shepard. After the fiasco and massacre caused by Darth Nox in Afterlife, it had taken a lot of talking, cajoling and promises to convince Aria that he had every intention of taking down Nox when he would have the chance. Then when he returned to the Normandy he found that all of Nox's equipment that he had brought aboard had been picked up by cerberus agents while he was away. Joker informed him that they had apparently arrived minutes after they had left the ship which told him that firstly, Nox must have been planned to leave, possibly even planning out the massacre at afterlife, and secondly that Cerberus were in league with his machinations. However Miranda firmly maintained that she had no knowledge of Nox's actions nor did she know that he was planning on leaving the normandy. Shepard was inclined to believe the cerberus officer however meaning that the plan was no doubt between the Illusive Man and Nox. After that fiasco the expedition into the plague zone to recruit the Salarian Doctor, Mordin went relatively smoothly. They had fought their way through hordes of vorcha to reach him at his clinic only for the vorcha to shut down the life support fans. As Shepard was unwilling to let an entire district suffocate to death he led his team to restart the district's air supply. Now Mordin was on the normandy, hard at work finding some way of countering the collector seeker swarms while he led Zaeed and Jacob in the hopeful recruitment of the vigilante Archangel.

While getting to the staging area, Shepard made sure to grill as many people on their strengths and plan of attack, knowing that he would be fighting them soon enough. He learned by talking to Jaroth, the Salarian Eclipse Leader that they would field mechs should the situation require it. Poking around some more Shepard found a room with a deactivated YMIR heavy mech in it. Using his N7 training he rewired the mech to reverse its IFF. It was rather underhanded, but he knew that he needed all the advantages he could get if he was going to get back out, alive. The blood pack leader, Garm didn't give him too much information, other than that he had fought with archangel before and that he would be fighting quite a few Krogan and Vorcha. Vorcha wouldn't be a problem. Krogan would be more difficult but he had killed quite a few Krogan while hunting Saren two years ago. That left only the Blue Suns and when he went to talk to their leader, Tarak who had immediately dismissed him and had him talk to a subordinate, a human named Jentha. She had told Shepard about the blue suns, informing him that they had a gunship that Archangel had already taken down once. Interestingly enough she seemed to harbor quite a bit a resentment for Tarak and when Shepard questioned her, Jentha merely said that Tarak had started to question every move she took or that her men took. Shepard wished he could find a way to have Jentha abandon the assault with her men, but he realized that he could not guarantee that Jentha would do so, and if he wouldn't abandon then Shepard's cover would be blown instantly. So Shepard bid the blue suns commander farewell and went to report in to Sergeant Cathka who was coordinating the freelancer assault. Cathka told him about an infiltration team that had crossed the bridge, undetected by archangel during a previous assault who were getting ready to try and kill archangel while the freelancers would distract the vigilante. A few questions later and Cathka got a signal from the infiltration team that it was time to commence the assault. As Cathka turned his attention back to repairing the gunship, Shepard's eye caught a sparking welder, his eyes snapped back to Cathka's back hesitating for a few moments before leaving the welder where it was and striding up to Cathka.

As he approached the batarian turned his head to look at him, to see the stock to his shotgun raised above his shoulder. His eyes widened as Shepard clocked him over the head, knocking the batarian unconscious. "You'll thank me later." he muttered apologetically as he stepped over his unconscious body towards the main barricade where more freelancers were already jumping over onto the bridge. As he hastened to join them, he thought he saw a figure in black in the corner of his eyes, yet when he turned to look closely he only saw the blue suns commander Jentha leaning up against a shadowed wall. Putting it out of his mind he climbed over the barricade to see six freelancers firing up at a balcony in the main building, a moment later he saw Archangel pop his head out from behind cover and down a freelancer with a quick and precise shot. The shot reminded him of another turian who was also an excellent marksman, Garrus who had helped him take down Saren. He grimaced unhappily at the betrayal that he was about to commit but still flared blue and propelled himself headfirst into the back of a freelancer.

Shepard, Jacob and Zaeed had torn their way through the freelancers and mercenary infiltration team to reach archangel who turned out to be none other than Garrus Vakarian, the turian who had traveled with him in his hunt for Saren. The four then held out against Eclipse who were the first to attack after the infiltration team was annihilated. Zaeed and Garrus stayed on the balcony while Jacob and Shepard went down to the ground floor. The Mechs and eclipse mercs were no match for Garrus and Zaeed's sniping skills combined with Shepard and Jacob's biotics and Shotguns. Shepard smirked satisfied when eclipse dropped the heavy mech only to have it turn on them immediately. When the blood pack attacked through the tunnels, he had Zaeed stay with Garrus, leaving the two to hold of any mercs coming over the bridge while he and Jacob went to deal with the blood pack in the tunnels. The vorcha were easily taken care of. Stupid and aggressive they generally ran straight into his biotics. The varren were just as easy, far more aggressive but unable to use weapons and having to rely on claws and teeth made them perfect targets for his shotgun. The Krogan on the other hand were far more difficult. They had the survivability, the aggressiveness and the experience in fighting which made them a tough opponent, but Shepard wasn't made an N7 for nothing. Combination of biotics and his weapons were enough to bring down all the Krogan who got in his way. However once he sealed the underground shutters and returned topside did he have to face Garm. He quickly found himself agreeing with Garrus's earlier statement about him being a freak of nature. He seemed to regenerate almost instantly from every wound inflicted on him and it was only when Shepard, Garrus, Jacob and Zaeed all blasted his head apart, did he finally die.

It was only when Shepard rejoined Garrus after the fight did everything go completely sideways.

"Just the blue suns left. Think we can make a break for it?" he asked, deferring to Garrus's knowledge of Omega.

The turian nodded "I think you're right. Tarak's got the toughest group but nothing we've never faced before-"

Shepard's eyes widened as he heard the sound of a gunship approaching and he threw himself at garrus knocking him out of the way just as a gunship bearing the blue colors of the blue suns flew into view, firing its nose gun into the windows, pinning down the entire squad. "Archangel! You think you can mess with the blue suns!?" Taraks loud, livid voice cut in over loudspeakers.

Garrus crawled up to crouch behind a couch complaining "Damnit! I thought I took that thing down already."

"Yeah well they fixed it. Thats what happens if you only take it down, not out." Shepard quipped taking a spot opposite Garrus.

"Come on, they're gonna need more than a single gunship to take us out." Garrus chuckled.

Any further chatter was interrupted when an explosion rocked the gunship, accompanied by a loud oath from Tarak. "What the hell are you doing?"

A new voice, a human woman by the sound of it responded over a loudspeaker from the merc base. "We've had enough of you Tarak. I'm taking over the suns."

"Damn you Jentha! You damn humans and your treachery." Shepard exchanged calculating glances with Garrus as Tarak shouted back at the traitorous blue suns.

"It is only natural Tarak. The strong will take over from the weak. I've proven myself to be stronger."

"Enough of this. Men! Capture the traitor. I will deal with her when I've killed Archangel and those three freelancers!."

"I'm afraid anyone who might have sided with you, has been dealt with. The suns are mine now Tarak! Take him down!"

With that order the gunship started being hit over and over by rockets and small arms fire coming from below, shattering its shields within seconds. Not ones to let an opportunity pass by them, the squad popped out of cover and started firing at the gunship as well, Shepard laying into it with the grenade launcher he carried on his back. Tarak didn't stand a chance, seconds after his shields dropped his engines caught fire and failed, sending the gunship spinning down, completely out of control. It fell under the bridge where a second passed until a loud crash echoed up from below. When the sounds died down, Jentha's voice sounded over the loudspeakers once again, this time addressing Shepard personally.

"Commander Shepard. My benefactor has requested that you and your team be allowed to leave unharmed. Therefore let me merely say that it was an honor talking to you and I hope that I will never be unfortunate enough to have to face you in combat."

Shepard narrowed his eyes shrewdly before shouting back at the new leader of the blue suns on Omega, making sure to stay behind cover. "And who is your new benefactor?"

A new voice cut in over the loudspeakers, one that Shepard immediately recognized. "Did you enjoy the show in afterlife Commander? I certainly did."

* * *

 _ **Shâsotjontû châtsatul nu tyûk.**_

* * *

Life for Truzka could not be going any better. Yes the Blood Pack had taken heavy losses in the attack on archangel, including their previous leader Garm, but his death had put Truzka in the perfect position to claim the pack for himself. Of course there had been other krogan who wanted to take over, but Truzka had bested them proving without a doubt that he was the strongest of the Omega Blood Pack.

The Losses taken to Archangel would be recuperated within a few months the way the vorcha breeded. The Krogan would be slightly harder to replace, but Truzka knew some Krogan part of his old clan, Ganar who were looking to find some real fights and would leap at the chance that Truzka would give them.

"Truzka." The rogan looked up at one of his guards. "This Human demands to speak to you." He said motioning to the figure robed completely in Black, who had been following the Krogan guard.

"A Human demands it?" Truzka asked amused.

The man strode up towards the blood pack leader. "I am no Human. I am Sith. And By my right as Darth Nox, Dark Lord of the Sith I challenge you to combat over my claim for the bloodpack."

The announcement caused many of the watching Krogan to burst out laughing while Truzka watched Nox with amusement written clearly upon his face. "And what sort of claim does a soft little thing like you think you have on the blood pack."

Nox didn't hesitate for a second. "The claim that anyone who can defeat the current leader in close quarters combat has."

Truzka laughed loudly "If the Human wants to die then I will accomodate hi. Tell me, 'Sith', are you even going to be worth fighting? Or is this going to be the most boring fight of my life." He asked rising to his full eight feet pulling out a massive krogan sized knife as he towered over the smaller Sith.

His response was chillingly cold "Consider yourself a former member of the living, krogan scum."

Truzka lowered his head and with a wordless roar charged the Sith lord who had yet to draw any kind of weapon so far. At the last possible second however, Darth Nox jumped to the side, completely avoiding the krogan juggernaut. "Pathetic brute. Is that all you can do?" Nox asked softly as he avoided yet another charge from the raging krogan.

"Stand and fight me Coward!" The krogan roared charging once more.

Nox's eyes flashed purple for a split second "As you wish."

Nox watched with glee as the Krogan charged at the sith one last time, his knife held back in preparation for a strike. He didn't move as Truzka lowered his shoulder and drew back his arm in preparation for a massive backhand strike. He didn't move until his enemy was an instant away from striking the sith, but once he started moving he was a force enhanced blur. His lightsaber appeared in his hands, violet blades growing from each end as he took a single diagonal step backwards, bringing the right end of his saber hissing down through Truzka's arm. Before the krogan could even begin to feel the pain Nox took a step to the side and brought the other end of his saber-staff falling onto the krogan's head, carving a way through his brain. Not done with that however he sidestepped the now forward falling krogan body and promptly decapitated the krogan with one blade and diagonally bisected the rest of the body with the other.

The crowd of vorcha and krogan that had previously been cheering loudly now stood still and silent in shock as the Arm, head and two halves of Truzka's body fell and rolled to a stop spread out across the ground.

* * *

 _ **Tyûkjontû châtsatul nu midwan.**_

* * *

"I hear that you have been rather busy lately."

Nox nodded looking at the hologram of the Illusive Man in front of him "With the mercenary groups on Omega now under my control, we hold a far stronger position in the terminus. More and more smaller mercenary groups are slowly joining us from all over the terminus. Aria has obviously already realised the threat that they now pose, as she has actually not attempted to throw us from Omega, this can only mean that she is not confident enough in her own power, and rather than risk failure she would rather turn a blind eye for now."

"And how do you plan on dealing with Aria when the time comes? I doubt that she will submit peacefully, she is too used to her power."

The Dark Lord waved a hand carelessly. "Aria is hardly a concern anymore. She may still equal my forces on omega, but outside of omega her influence is quickly dwindling. I fully expect that she will soon attempt a power play in order to regain her influence but it will merely be the dying throes of a worm that has already been cut in two. She will submit, either willingly or through death."

"Yet worms can survive being cut in half, are you sure that you have not merely awoken the beast? You should be careful, Aria is a formidable opponent. She hasn't stayed in power this long being stupid."

Nox rolled his eyes "She's been in power of a single station. I made my way to the top of the empire. An empire that spanned half a galaxy. I've defeated more than my share of criminal masterminds. This will just be one more. As I've said, Aria will either submit to my rule, or die. Either is acceptable to me. What about you, how are your projects coming?"

The Illusive Man took a drag from his cigarette before answering. "Rather well. We have successfully been able to replicate the 'Blasters' for small arms. At the moment they are still merely prototypes, not as efficient or as damaging as the blasters from your galaxy, yet it is a significant step up from the weapons we have right now. The larger ship based variants, along with the Turbolasers are unfortunately more difficult to replicate as we have not found any tibanna gas in our galaxy and are still searching a substitute or a way to produce it artificially. And finally we have made great strides in our own Hyperspace technology. While we have yet to successfully break the barrier to hyperspace, my scientists are confident that they will create a hyperdrive, relatively soon. It would however be far faster if we could take your ship apart."

Nox shook his head. "No. I will be requiring the _Torment_ myself. How soon until its functional?"

"Not long. The ship itself is fully repaired, we are merely having to make sure it is capable of trans-relay travel, as well as updating it with the most recent astrographical data. I expect it to be ready for you within a few days."

"Excellent. I will come and pick it up then. Now, Shepard. What is he doing?"

The Illusive man pulled up a holographic report, casting a glance over it as he answered "The Normandy is currently docked at the Citadel. Shepard got an invitation from Councillor Anderson to meet with the council. It should play to our advantage."

"How so?"

"I do not believe that the council will be willing to offer much support to Shepard while he is working with us. As such it will provide him with even less alternatives."

"And drive him further into our arms."

"Precisely."

"Well then, keep me informed. I have an eclipse outpost on Lorek to visit."

"Understood. I will let you know when your ship is ready."

Nox merely terminated the transmission, amber eyes glowing in anticipation. Everything was slowly falling into place. He had to be careful, in order to not spook the Illusive Man too much and have him turn Cerberus against him. Leaning back in his seat he continued to peruse the reports in front of him until he arrived at Lorek. .

* * *

 _ **Midwanjontû châtsatul nu asha.**_

* * *

A flight of Four kodiak shuttles tore their way through the atmosphere of Korlus, each painted blue and bearing the white emblem of the blue suns. The shuttles stayed in tight formation as they navigated their way through the graveyard of destroyed and abandoned ships toward their target, a large hollowed out freighter that currently served as the headquarters of Jedore and her blue suns.

"Local comm chatter seems indicates that unknown commando's have torn their way through the garrison and made it to the labs. Jedore is losing control and growing increasingly desperate."

Nox stood facing the shuttle door as he listened to the pilot.

"It sounds like Shepard has really done a number on our boys down there. I don't know how many will be left when we arrive."

Nox shrugged. "As long as the technology is salvageable this mission will be a success. A few dozen survivors will be insignificant."

"Of course my lord. We will be landing within the minute."

Nox didn't respond to the pilot, merely standing solidly, not letting himself be thrown off balance by the slight turbulence that the shuttle was encountering as it landed. The moment the shuttle doors opened, he stepped out into the barren ship graveyard that was Korlus. Around him, the three other blue suns shuttles had landed and the exiting mercenaries grouped up and headed out of the landing zone to fulfill their objectives. Nox didn't spare them more than a single glance as he strode out into what he knew to be the blue suns base. He, along with the rest of his troops had landed on the blue suns landing pads inside the actual base. The mercenaries split off as Nox easily navigated the base, having carefully studied the blueprints, until he reached his destination.

A large room, once no doubt a cargo hold of this large freighter, held multiple cylinders that Nox knew to be the cloning tubes that contained various krogan. Other than the cloned krogan there was only one other living person within this particular room, the blue suns leader, Jedore who looked up at Nox's entrance. Nox could see the woman's eyebrows furrow as she set her gaze upon him. He felt her confusion as he strode towards her and she held up a hand, signaling that she wished for him to go no further. "Halt! Who the fuck are you? Get the hell out of here."

Nox sneered as he continued to walk towards her. When she realized that he was not stopping, she pulled out a pistol and aimed it at his head. "I said get the fuck-" Nox didn't let her finish as he raised his left hand and a small jolt of electricity struck the pistol, sending it flying out of Jedore's hand, giving her a mild shock in the process. Striding past her, he slowed to a stop, keeping his back to the woman as he gazed out from under his hood up towards a window where he sensed a familiar presence in the force.

"How dare you attack me? Do you know who I am? I am the commander of the Blue suns!"

Either Jedore was extremely brave, or extremely stupid and Nox was confident that she was just another spineless and gutless insect. "I am the new leader of the Blue suns. I am a Dark Lord of the Sith and you _will_ treat me with the respect befitting as your lord and master!" As Nox spoke he turned halfway around and let another blast of lightning loose at Jedore. This time, Nox's lightning struck the woman head on and she screamed as the lightning ravaged her body. When she fell to the ground writhing, Nox maintained the lightning for a few moments longer before abating his attack, leaving her panting on the ground. "Now then. These krogan. Quite the interesting operation. Tell me, where did you get this equipment?"

Jedore seemed to have finally understood just who had the power between the two of them because she answered immediately, still panting heavily from the exposure to the Sith Lightning.

"The krogan we brought here, Warlord okeer, he brought everything with him when we hired him. But It's faulty, just creates mindless animals."

Yet Nox was still displeased with the way that she addressed him as he raised his hand and a blast of lightning shocked her once more. "Firstly, you will address me as your lord whenever you speak to me."

"O-of course my lord." Jedore sank to her knees as her body lost the energy to continue standing.

"And second, there is nothing wrong with these Krogan. You merely are too stupid to realise that Krogan are animals. Violent animals who require proper leadership. An insect cannot command wolves. But even wolves bow to their alphas." He paused and turned towards a door in the corner of the large hall "One of which approaches." He glanced at Jedore who was shaking on her knees, "Now stand up." He hissed, "Your weakness is pathetic."

As Jedore pulled herself to her feet the door in the corner slid open. "Sir! Those are the Commando's that have been attacking us!" Jedore exclaimed upon seeing the figures enter.

Another blast of lightning sent her falling to the ground "I see that your insolence has yet to be cured. You will speak when spoken too."

"Nox!" The Dark lord turned to face the man who was leading the party of three. "You seem to show up everywhere. And now I see you torturing people?"

"I'm merely making sure I get the respect I deserve. Is it so much different than you?"

"My respect is earned, Not taken."

"And how has that been treating you Shepard? You saved the galaxy two years ago. You sacrificed your life, and do you have respect? People dismiss your warnings, ridicule you, snub you when you bring more warnings? Did the council respect you when you brought them warnings about the collectors? Of course not. That is why earning respect is a lie. It is impossible to earn respect. Respect must be enforced, else people forget about you."

"How do you know about the council?" Shepard asked taken by surprise.

"Need I remind you that the force is capable of many things?" It wasn't a lie, he merely didn't mention that in this circumstance it was the reports that Nox received from Cerberus, rather than the force that told him of that encounter.

"I-" Jedore caught herself before she managed to provoke the sith's Ire again. "My lord, if I may. These commandos killed most of my men, I want them dead!"

"Why are you even still alive?" He asked himself and if Jedore had an answer, she quickly found herself unable to voice it as an invisible hand clenched itself around her windpipe. Her hands flew to her neck in a vain attempt to relieve the pressure that was slowly suffocating her.

Nox ignored the choking woman, slowly walking past her towards Shepard and his two squadmates, an old human with scars covering his face and a turian that he recognized as being archangel.

"What are you doing?" Shepard exclaimed eyes flicking back and forth between the dying Jedora and the Sith causing her death.

"Removing someone I have no need for."

"So you torture someone to make them address you as you want them to and then you just kill them?"

"Yes. And? Is there a problem with that?" Nox asked as if he were asking about the weather "She is expendable, even more so now that you have completely destroyed her operation here. Besides she would have continued to interrupt our conversation." He cocked his head slightly as he thought of something "Much like she is doing right now actually. Even when dead they continue to irritate me."

"You really are insane. First you tell me that I need you to stop the reapers, then you massacre Aria's guards and run? So was that vision just a lie like I thought?"

"The future remains the same. After all, I left voluntarily in order to further prepare the galaxy." Nox paused and nodded up towards the window far above where he had sensed Shepard earlier. "Now I suggest you return to your krogan friend up there. I can sense his life slipping away."

Shepard hesitated, torn between wanting to secure his recruit and continuing to confront Nox, eventually however one side won out and he merely glared at him for a moment as he turned to walk back the way he came. "This is far from over."

"It most certainly is." Kallig muttered, his gleaming eyes were the last visible thing as his body vanished into a cloud of dark purple mist which immediately flowed down toward the ground where it slowly dissipated.

* * *

 _ **Ashajontû kotswinot itsu nuyak.**_

* * *

Warlord Okeer groaned as he awoke. The last thing he remembered was the pain as the poisonous gas that Jedore had released shut down all his organs. His eyes snapped open, darting to where the tank containing his pure krogan had stood, only to find the corner empty. He remembered telling Shepard to take it away in order to maintain his legacy.

Okeer slowly stood up, pondering his survival, but froze halfway as he realized that a hooded, robed and masked figure was watching him from the middle of the room. The figure looked to be a rather tall and lithe huma. Ordinarily seeing a human challenging him would amuse Okeer, but this figure seemed to ooze an aura of dark malevolence so strong that Okeer could not help but feel the initial flutterings of fear stir in his chest. Yet Okeer was a Krogan and as such when the stirrings of the fight or flight instincts presented themselves he did what any sane Krogan would do. He charged the human with a bellowing roar.

When a Krogan in full armor weighing two thousand pounds charges a human making no effort to evade the incoming juggernaut most would expect to see the human smashed into the opposite wall with enough force to kill him twice over. Therefore when Okeer suddenly smashed into a wall of force he could only stare dumbly at the figure in front of him who had merely raised a hand out in front of him. While there were some biotics who had the ability to stop a krogan in its tracks, it was an extremely difficult task for them and they would be showing signs of extreme exertion, coupled by the telltale blue aura of the biotics. This figure showed neither, merely having raised a hand from which this invisible force flowed over Okeer holding him in place.

"Now now. There will be time for your brutishness later. I have need of you for a different reason." The figure said, dark malevolence dripping from every word.

* * *

 _ **Wonoksh Qyâsik nun.**_

* * *

Shepard woke with a start his heart pounding as he remembered the nightmare that woke him. In it he had finally seen Ashley again, only to have her accuse him of treason for working with Cerberus, unable to see reason, they had argued until eventually Ashley stormed off leaving him standing alone staring after her. He ran a shaky hand through his short hair, It had to be his subconsciousness expressing his inner worries that had come with his death and losing two years of his life. Ever since he woke up, his dreams had been plagued with shadowy figures and whispers. They changed constantly but two things stayed constant in each of his dreams. The first was a male figure, standing shrouded in darkness, always facing away from him, continuing to turn away whenever he tried to see his face, and the second were the words of Nox, constantly following him around in his memories, feeding on his doubts and fears. He was always able to block those words during the day, ignoring them to the point that they were completely drowned out amidst his daily life. However they remained in the deep crevices of his mind, springing forth whenever his defenses were lowered.

Realizing that sleep was not going to find him now, he went to take a shower. As he stood under the stream of water he heard Nox's voice say "You realize that what you have seen will come to pass?"

Biting back a oath of surprise Shepard spun around only to see an empty room. His eyes narrowed as he glanced all around the small bathroom. "How the hell did you get in here?"

Only silence answered his question and when he turned off the shower and commenced an extensive search of the bathroom and his quarters did he begin to realize that he must have been hallucinating, no doubt due to lack of sleep, the stress of his death and everything that was happening around him.

The worst thing was that as much as he would like to deny it, some of Nox's words had struck home. He _was_ fed up with not being taken seriously. He _was_ tired of the council not respecting all that he had done for them, that he had saved their lives and that he had given his life carrying out their orders. HE had seen the recordings of his funeral and the council had merely used it for their own gain. Not to mention once he was dead the council wasted no time in undoing everything he had worked so hard to accomplish. They had even been able to get Udina on the council as opposed to Anderson like he wanted. That arrogant ass hadn't waited a single second before he started rubbing that particular fact into his face. Nox's words had struck many chords within his soul, he wanted the respect that he deserved, yet he would not force it out of those who surrounded him, he would prove himself worthy once more. He would prove to everyone that he deserved their respect.

He held his hand up in front of him, bringing up his biotics with it. He regarded the blue aura that surrounded his hand. He remembered how pale his biotics seemed in comparison to Nox's force, especially given what he had seen the sith be able to do in Afterlife. He had shown himself capable of defeating large groups in seconds, something that most biotics, hell most Asari Commandos would have trouble with.

He sighed, releasing his biotics and running his hand over his face as he sat down at his desk, hoping to drive the nightmares from his mind.

* * *

 _A/N: Happy new year! Now Nox is starting to really build up his power base. He's still staying in the terminus systems but he's solidifying his hold on the mercenary groups. Then there's him messing with Shepard. Anyway next chapter will probably detail more of his takeover of the Terminus systems._

 _So anyway until next time guys and always remember that Peace is a lie._


	4. Chapter 4

_Last time quite a bit happened. Nox gained the services of Jentha, a blue suns commander on Omega, used her to gain control of the blue suns there. Took over the Blood pack after disposing of their new leader. And he picked up Warlord Okeer on Korlus while having a little discussion with Shepard. This chapter only really has one thing that ends up happening in it but its far more detailed than what happened last chapter._

* * *

 _ **Nwûl tash. Dzwol shâsotkun. Shâsotjontû châtsatul nu tyûk**_

* * *

"Everything matters, every little detail. We need to convince Santiago's men that you will be a better leader with me as their overlord, and Santiago will not let his title go easily. He's been co-leading it since its founding and he will use everything that he possibly can in order to maintain his position. But merely killing him will not provide us the loyalty of his men. We must play our cards correctly and when he attacks us. Then we strike."

Jentha shifted slightly in her chair "Pardon me for asking my lord, but you could just force him into serving you…"

The Sith grinned, as he leaned back finished with inputting the coordinates to the navicomputer and clasped his hands behind his head. "Wondering what's to stop me from turning on you and instead having him lead the blue suns? It would make overall control of the Blue Suns easier, having the founder and current leader of the group act as my agent. He would know much, have far more experience in such a position than anyone, why he would even be a far greater asset than you are."

He paused his smirk continuing to dance on his lips as he regarded the red haired woman who had stilled uncomfortably. "But ultimately disloyal, and disloyal assets are far worse than even the most incompetent of subordinates. Skill can be taught, cultivated, even forced into being. True loyalty however, can not be forced as such. Enforced certainly and enforcing loyalty is extremely important. Disloyalty will always be punished. Such enforcing breeds fear which is critical in order to keep the weak in line. Fear keeps the vast majority of subjects in line. The problem arises when there are those stupid enough to believe themselves above the fear. Because then they do incredibly stupid things, like believing themselves to have a chance at standing against me. Then they become traitors. And that is what would ultimately happen if we just march in there and force Santiago to follow me. He will be disloyal. Same thing would happen if we were to merely execute Santiago. His men, who are currently loyal to him, would band together and believe that them as a group could have a chance at killing us. It wouldn't be difficult to show them the error of their ways, however by the time they have been sufficiently punished, very few of them would be remaining."

Nox turned away from his companion to face the torments controls as the navicomputer beeped its readiness. "As such this takeover will be more intricate. First we will have to turn his men against him. The moment that they begin to question him we strike. If we wait too long then they will have too much time to reach decisions that are not my own. And this is where you come in. Everything that happens until we land is up to you. You will be the one in communication with him and any others on our approach. "

Jentha listened raptly as the Sith engaged the hyperdrive there was a whine and suddenly the stars flared into starlines and quickly shifted into a swirling tunnel of blue energy. "You will be challenged but you must be authoritative. Never question yourself. Never back down, you are correct. No matter what is said. You are above them all. I will make sure that any conversations you have are broadcast planetwide. Santiago will challenge you as soon as he knows you are in system. Choose your words carefully but be confident. Santiago will attempt to find out if we lied to him and managed to get his spies on omega onboard as well, or if his spies are merely incompetent. We have the advantage, instead of him having hours to prepare for our arrival, he merely has days. As such he will be faced with a quandary. If he is too overt in his attempts to secure his rule, then his men will realize that he is worried by our arrival, which in turn will inform them that we may be the better people to follow. Yet, if he doesn't hasten to cement his leadership then we will be able to exploit all those vulnerable weaknesses quite easily. The play will succeed and I will have the initiative.""

Nox turned to stare at Jentha "If you fail however. Then I will have to resort to more… persuasive methods and you will be less useful to me. This will be your chance to prove your worth. Do not squander it."

"I will not fail you my lord."

"See that you don't. We'll be exiting Hyperspace shortly. I suggest you prepare yourself."

Jentha nodded falling silent, watching the gloved hands of the sith manipulate the controls of the ship. She had recognized the order to be silent when she heard it and so she waited and watched the swirling hypnotic blue tunnel of hyperspace. Jentha felt the hypnotic pull that always seemed to accompany the swirling energy tunnel. But before she could view it too long, the tunnel morphed itself into long starlines as the hyperdrive disengaged and an instant later the starlines had become stars as the planet of Zorya grew rapidly into view directly ahead. The trip from the Aquila mass relay to Zorya had taken a shocking one and a half minutes, compared to the sixteen hours it would normally have taken with a top of the line FTL Drive.

As the planet grew ever larger in front of the ship Nox turned to Jentha and gave her a nod. She waited a second drawing herself fully up as Nox turned on the communications system. "This is Blue Suns Commander Jentha Langstaff to Thun Blue Suns military base, I am escorting Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Nox for conference with Executive Officer Santiago as per his instructions."

She waited with baited breath for the response. "Commander Langstaff, I don't have you as a scheduled arrival."

"Well I can assure you that Santiago has given us clearance. I just finished with talking with him a few minutes ago, I suggest you check again soldier."

"Stand by while I verify Commander. If however this turns out to be a waste of my and of Executive Officer Santiago's time then I suggest you get the hell out of here now before we decide to send you packing with our fighters."

"Noted and I have a suggestion for you in turn. When you get confirmation about our scheduling I suggest you run for threatening the blue suns commander in charge of Omega."

"Well done." Nox said as he cut off the communicator. "That will send the right message, both to him and to Santiago." Nox settled back into his chair a self-satisfied smirk on his face. Not only had the power play been successful against Santiago, or rather it would be. But It would also send a message to Jentha, that he could make plans that she would never see coming. He had only begun to truly plan out his moves after his initial failed attempt on his rival's life. An attempt that had been made by a far younger and more naive and weak Kallig. By the time of the Kaggath on Corellia where he had defeated his first true rival once and for all his cunning and intelligence had increased tenfold and after spending years on the dark council, defending his position from upstarts and outmaneuvering his rivals on the dark council did he become a true master of manipulation. His fingers were everywhere, his presence felt throughout the galaxy and when his will was brought to bear, there was nothing that could stop it and this galaxy would soon learn this.

A flashing light indicated that an incoming communications request was inbound from the planet and after waiting for a few seconds lifted a single finger to accept the call.

"What the hell are you playing at Langstaff?" Nox grinned as the olive skinned visage appeared on screen, his brown eyes contorted in anger, scraggly bearded jaw set as he glared at the female Commander.

"Playing? I'm afraid I don't know what you mean. We agreed that we would meet as soon as I got here and here I am."

"Don't play coy with me Langstaff. You lied to me. You told me that you were on omega, since you're here already which means you saw fit to deceive me. Well the meetings off. I won't meet with someone as treacherous as you. Don't think I don't know about what happened on Omega."

"I can assure you that we were on Omega when we spoke. However my benefactor Darth Nox has a ship with a new means of FTL, that is far faster than anything we have now."

"So you mean to tell me that you have a ship capable of travelling from Omega to here in less than ten minutes? Bullshit."

"Well we did use the mass relays to travel to Aquila, but the travel from Aquila to here took us just over a minute yes. And he brings much more technology that he is currently willing to share with the blue suns. I'm sure that you would of course deny your troops access to the best equipment?"

Santiago opened his mouth to deliver a scathing retort when something to his side drew his attention. His expression changed from angry to surprise back to anger before smoothing out to a calm neutral look. "Not at all. We'd be more than welcome to accept such gifts, I would merely have preferred to have had a more accurate time schedule next time."

"Noted."

"Unfortunately we do not have any free landing sites large enough to accommodate your ship, so you will have to find a clearing out in the jungle to land."

Jentha's eyes furrowed in confusion and just as she was about to retort, that she could see on her scanners that there were free landing sites nearby, she caught the sharp glance from the Sith next to her. "I see. Very well I'm sure we'll manage."

"I'm glad to hear it. I look forward to the meeting." By his tone of voice and by how quickly he shut off the comm clearly indicated the opposite to his statement.

Jentha sat still for a moment, not speaking as Nox deftly brought the _Torment_ into Zorya's atmosphere. "You are wondering why I did not have you contest the fact that Santiago was clearly lying about the fact that there were no available landing sites?" The Sith continued at Jentha's silent nod. "Its quite simple really, because it would weaken our standing and because if forced to I'm sure that Santiago could easily deny our ship access to land at a viable landing site, or even send us to a landing site that we have absolutely no desire to land at. It's a power play. And we will turn it against him. He is making it seem like we are given free reign of where we land in the jungle but in reality we could only land at a very specific clearing due to it being the only one large enough to house the _Torment_ in a ten kilometer radius. This lets him send his troops to keep an eye on us as we move to the base, no doubt under the pretense of an 'escort'. We will ruin those plans of his. He told us that we will have to find a clearing in the jungle for us to land. He however said nothing about us creating a new clearing for us."

"You're going to create a landing site?" Jentha asked shocked.

"Of course. I am more than capable of clearing out foliage enough to allow us to land. The troops he sends out will most likely be his most loyal and they will be out of position, granting us once again the advantage."

* * *

 _ **Tyûkjontû châtsatul nu midwan. Midwanjontû châtsatul nu asha.**_

* * *

The _Torment_ cut through the clear Zoryan aky, a dark blade on a blue backdrop. It lowered itself until it was skimming over the jungletop. The whine of the engines, the wind of displaced air along with the cold presence of the Dark Side sending animals below scattering away, filled with a primal fear that the instinctual creatures only knew brought death. As the Refinery that the Blue Suns were using as a base grew larger in the transparisteel window the _Torment_ slowed to a hover about a hundred meters from the refinery entrance, directly over a swath of jungle at the side of the road that lead up to the refinery.

"Now I demonstrate my power to all those who would dare defy me." Before Jentha could inquire as to what the Sith meant a sudden chill ran down her spine and spread throughout her body as if her blood had been replaced by ice. She shivered uncontrollably as she saw Nox's eyes start glowing a bright Violet and dark vapor began oozing from his body. It seemed like she was sitting next to a demon of some kind. Tearing her eyes from the Sith she glanced out the window only to let her jaw drop in astonishment. A vortex of energy, accompanied by much of the same dark vapor that was pouring off of Nox had formed in the jungle ahead of the ship. It was tearing its way through the foliage sending bushes flying and tearing branches from trees. The Vortex grew stronger and more violent as she watched and soon enough the only things left standing were bare tree trunks which were bent almost to the ground, their roots straining to hold them in place against the winds. Yet soon enough even the roots were torn from the ground. As the last tree tore itself free from the ground and crashed its way further into the forest did the vortex slowly start to subside and die out.

Two minutes after it had started there was a new large clearing outside of the refinery gates, large enough to easily fit the _Torment_. Strewn all around the clearing were uprooted bushes, trees and a layer of torn off leaves, all the remnants of what had previously been dense jungle. Jentha stared in awe and some fear as the _Torment_ slowly flew over the new clearing and lowered itself to the ground. While she had heard of Nox's demonstration in Afterlife, this was the first time she had truly been confronted with the actual power of the sith next to her.

Without a word spoken, Nox stood up and swept out of the cockpit, his robes billowing out behind him as he went. A second passed before Jentha snapped herself out of the stupor she had fallen into and quickly followed the Sith out of the _Torment._ The first thing she noticed upon exiting the ship was the chill that she had first felt when Nox had started to clear the landing site had not subsided, instead it almost felt stronger outside in the middle of this clearing, as if she were standing in a torrential downpour of freezing rain. The second thing she noticed was that the normal layer of dead and rotting leaves that generally covered the ground of every jungle was completely absent, all blown away by Nox's vortex. In fact as she followed Nox as he strode toward the refinery she noticed a definite slope upwards towards the road and jungle around the clearing. A closer look showed her that a significant layer of earth had been torn out forming what now appeared more akin to a crater than merely a clearing of jungle.

Jentha noticed two final things as she followed behind the Sith as he strode up the road towards the Refinery. The first was that the Road was conspicuously absent of fallen foliage, even though it had run right past the newly formed clearing. The second was the complete and utter silence that had permeated the jungle. She couldn't hear birds chirping, or the insects buzzing, or even the rustling as small creatures made their way through the underbrush. Even the refinery itself seemed to have fallen into an eerie silence. A silence that made the hair on the back of her neck stand on edge to join the icy cold that had spread throughout her body. She knew that she had made the right choice, when Nox had appeared in her apartment on Omega. She had joined forces with what was likely to be the most powerful individual in the galaxy and with his leadership she would see her every desire fulfilled, so long as she remained useful to him. And so she swore to herself that she would make sure to remain useful to the Sith for a long time.

"Vido Santiago." He didn't speak any louder than he had when they were aboard his ship, yet she felt it slither through her mind nonetheless. "I am Darth Nox, Dark Lord of the Sith and you will hereby open your gates to me." Her eyes widened in astonishment as without a word the refinery gates slowly grated open with a deep rumble. On the other side of the gates stood Vido Santiago himself surrounded by what looked to be about twenty Blue Suns troopers, all armored and armed, their rifles lowered in their hands, heads covered by helmets hiding their faces. Slightly separated from Santiago's group stood more blue suns these with their weapons holstered on their backs, as they watched the proceedings take place.

"I don't care who you think you are, but no one orders me to do anything." "Santiago spat. "You've managed to weasel your way here, but don't expect anything else."

"I am Sith, worm, and I take what I wish. I have arrived to offer the men and women of Zorya a choice. Accept my overlordship, with Commander Langstaff as my direct subordinate, gain valuable new weapons and armor, the likes of which have never before been seen in this galaxy and outstrips everything that can be found here. Profit from my leadership or don't. Let this opportunity slip through your fingers, only to watch as I and those that join me grow ever more powerful. Then when you decide to come crawling back to join my ranks you will be delegated to the lowest of status. Fit only for fodder to be sent against my enemies in the first wave of death. You have seen what I am capable of. Know that that display is merely a taste of true power."

Jentha stepped forward, to take her place behind and to the right of the Sith lord. "Lord Nox speaks the truth, already I and the rest of the Suns under my leadership have grown far richer. I strongly urge all of you to join us in carving out a place in the galaxy."

A low murmur spread throughout many of the watching Blue Suns. Only the group clustered around Vido remained silent. Jentha realized that while the majority of the Blue Suns might be convinced, Vido's loyalists wouldn't be swayed so easily. She was proven correct when Vido noticed the mutterings that had started growing louder and louder amongst the other Blue suns.

"I'm done here. Men kill them both. We'll take their equipment and reverse engineer it for ourselves."

"Suicide it is then." Nox said as Vido's Loyalists raised their weapons and opened fire. Jentha dived to the side, her shields sparking as they deflected the few shots that hit her before she managed to roll behind some nearby refining equipment. She peered out through a small gap in the machinery only to have her jaw open in astonishment. Nox appeared to be surrounded by a glowing purple shield, his arms a blur as he spun his lightsaber around. She could see the puffs of vapor that accompanied every intercepted shot. Yet before she could do more than blink Nox took a quick step to the side, releasing his staff with his right hand while continuing to guide it with his left. His now free right hand thrust forward at the right flank of Santiago's men and with a ripple through the air, accompanied by the sound of a sudden wind that somehow managed to be heard above the gunfire, sent four of the men careening backward where their flight was quickly ended by a solid concrete wall.

Ducking around the machinery that she was hiding behind Jentha sighted in on a Loyalist and fired, her rifle spat out a bolt of red energy that hit the man directly in the chest, bypassing his shields entirely and burning a hole through his armor sending him crashing to the ground. She quickly shifted her aim to another man and repeated the process. In the time that she had killed those two men, Nox had yanked another three men toward him and as they flew past him his whirling beams of energy intercepted them cutting them in two, all the while continuing to protect him from the rest of Santiago's loyalists. With a sharp up down jerk of his arms Nox abandoned his lightsaber defense as instead a sphere of what appeared to be electricity formed around him. Each time a shot struck it a ripple would billow out along the electricity but it did not waver. Holding his staff in his left hand, Nox's right formed into a claw just above his hilt as lightning sprung from his fingertips to his saber, as the blade started sparking with electricity Nox looked up at the group and with a blur of movement he was in their midst, carving his way through the men and women who stood in his way. Before Jentha had to stop firing in order to avoid the risk of hitting the Sith in their midst, she had managed to kill another three Loyalists. Instead she opted to keep a close eye on the rest of the blue suns while watching the show in front of her. Six loyalists were cut down in a third as many seconds by the Sith's swirling violet blades, each time a blade made contact with one a blast of electricity was sent through the unfortunate soul, making absolutely sure that each man hit was brought out of the fight for good. By now only santiago and four other loyalists remained standing. She saw for a split second that all five of them were dropping their weapons and flinging their hands to the sky before they were all consumed in a blast of lightning sent from Nox's hands.

Their screams of agony quickly drowned out the crackle of electricity, leaving it to be the backdrop of their pain. Nox held them under the electricity for a good five seconds before he relented. Their screams gave way to gasps as they recovered from the pain. "Oh how the- well you never really were mighty were you? I suppose the fall wasn't so bad then was it?"

A raised hand and lightning arced forth to strike one of the men who lay on the floor. Not granted respite from the pain the man bellowed forth his pain to the heavens, his screams crescendoed within a second before failing to pained wheeze as his voice gave out, yet Nox did not cease. His head tilted to the side as he regarded the twitching and writhing man. It didn't take more than another few seconds for him to stop gasping for air and still. Nox yanked back his hand cutting off the stream of deadly lightning.

"See what happens to those who challenge a Sith?" Nox asked "They die. Painfully or not but they still die." He turned his head to face the only surviving woman of Santiago's loyalists and upon noticing his attention on her she tried to scramble back pleading with the masked Dark Lord "No! Please mercy. Mercy!"

Another raised hand already had her flinching away but when no lightning sprung forth she hesitated for a brief moment. Next to her Santiago a gloating look suddenly sprung forth on his face for a brief moment, only to be quickly replaced by a look of horror as Nox's power manifested itself a different way. The woman started shaking violently muttering quietly to herself. While she was muttering far to quietly for Jentha to hear what she was saying at first, the woman grew louder until Jentha could clearly hear what she had to say. "No. No-no. Go away, go away. Leave you're not real, you're not real. you're dead. You're all dead. I killed you. I killed you. Nonononononono." Her muttering subsided into an incoherent babble as she rocked back and forth on the ground her head clutched in her hands.

"Madness. She has quite the demons locked away in her mind. I thought it would be nice to let them come out to play."

By now Santiago and his remaining two men were on their knees, begging for mercy from the Sith. "Mercy?" he asked quietly and a moment later the two men next to santiago suddenly fell silent. Their hands jumped to their necks clawing at their armor as they were slowly lifted into the air. "Mercy is for the weak. The only mercy I grant you is the final release of death." He said as he slowly strode forward, towards Santiago, choking the two men beside him. "Your minions are lucky. They receive that mercy quickly. You on the other hand shall not. Your agony will be extended for a long time. You will serve as a warning to all who believe themselves capable of defying me. I will gain much enjoyment from your torment which starts now."

Vido flinched back, obviously expecting pain to come immediately but Nox merely turned from the fallen man towards the throng of completely silent Blue suns mercenaries that stood watching. "I now ask for your decision. Kneel before me, pledge your loyalty to me and you will be rewarded handsomely, or turn away and you will not benefit. The choice is yours." For a second nobody moved until one man stepped forward and sank to one knee. A rush of movement and all the other men and women around did the same, sinking down and bowing their heads before their new leader. Once the last person had kneeled, Nox turned to face Santiago once more. "A warning to all. Anyone who dares to betray me, will experience a fate similar to him." He proclaimed raising a single armored hand to point at the fallen man. As his finger came to a stop a blast of lightning arced out from it to strike him.

The lightning only lasted for a couple of seconds, yet as Jentha watched Nox order Santiago be taken away, she knew that his torture was just beginning.

* * *

 _ **Ashajontû kotswinot itsu nuyak. Wonoksh Qyâsik nun.**_

* * *

 _A/N: Not really much to say here I think. Nox doing Nox things and expanding his power base. Next chapter will show some of the consequences of this along with returning to see what Shepard and co are doing._

 _I can't promise a time on when I'll next be able to update. I am after all working on my other fic as well and I really want to finish that up before I concentrate fully on this. So we'll see._


	5. Chapter 5

_Well sorry for taking so long but I did warn you guys. University is a bitch and finding enough time to write in between homework, lectures and stellaris… well it's not been easy. Anyway on to the chapter._

* * *

 _ **Nwûl tash. Dzwol shâsotkun. Shâsotjontû châtsatul nu tyûk. Tyûkjontû châtsatul nu midwan.**_

* * *

"So what do we know about this Jack?" Shepard asked.

Miranda grimaced. "Not much to be completely honest. She has a criminal background that outstrips just about every other known criminal. Rumored to be the most powerful human biotic and having an extreme history of violence so I suggest that when you approach her you do so carefully."

"She?"

"Yes. We don't have a last name and I can't help but wonder if Jack is even her real name or more likely an assumed name."

Shepard sighed as he continued perusing the datapad that held Jack's Dossier. "Currently held on the prison ship Purgatory. Apt name for a prison ship." He muttered under his breath. "With such a criminal record, and this history of violence are we even sure that we want her on the Normandy? Most powerful human biotic… if that's true then she could probably cause a lot of damage if she wanted to."

"A valid concern and something that I believe we will have to make a decision on once we pick her up. But I don't need to tell you how useful having a biotic with sheer power would be. Not to mention that nobody will miss a criminal like her if she dies on the mission."

Shepard grimaced uncomfortably "That's probably true. Well it's not like we weren't gonna pick her up. We're already here. Anyway we'll go pick her up and I'll make my decision on whether or not we will keep her once I've met the woman. Alright, Joker go ahead and bring us into dock and let Zaeed know that we're coming."

"Aye aye commander."

Miranda raised an eyebrow "Are you expecting a fight? We're paying the blue suns quite the amount, do you think that they are going to be that stupid?"

Shepard frowned. "I'm not sure. I just know that my gut is telling me to bring him."

"Really."

He scowled "Look, my instincts have saved my ass more times than I care to count and I've learned to do what my instincts tell me to so we're bringing Zaeed."

"Very well commander." She said inclining her head "Is there anything else that you wish to cover?

"No you may go. Make sure and gear up. If something does go wrong I want to make sure we're ready for it."

"Of course commander." Miranda said bowing her head once more and turning to leave.

Shepard glared at her back as she left the corner of his lips curling upward into a harsh sneer. It was obvious that she didn't believe him, probably believing that he was too paranoid. He would show her, he would make her realize that he was right. Then she would respect his instincts, just as he respected them. He was torn from his brooding by EDI's blue orb appearing on the table in front of him.

"Commander, your team is waiting for you to join them. Shall I let them know that you'll be taking a little while longer."

He shook his head as he began to walk around the table towards the exit. "No. No. I'll be right out. Thank you EDI."

"You are welcome."

Stepping out of the comm room he let the door slide closed behind him as he turned left toward the armory. Jacob glanced up at him from his workstation as the commander entered. "Hey Shepard."

"Jacob how are you doing?" Shepard asked walking over to his locker and pulling out his undersuit from within.

"I'm great. How about you? Heading out to recruit a criminal huh? I'm not quite sure how I feel about that."

Shepard place the undersuit on a nearby table and leaned heavily upon it for a moment. "Yeah." he sighed pushing himself off the table. "I'm not sure how I feel about it either." He said stripping down to his underwear and grabbing the undersuit from the table top. "On one hand we're going to need all the help we can get. Especially someone who is apparently the most powerful human biotic. On the other hand…" he trailed off as he pulled his undersuit on.

"On the other hand, she's a violent Criminal." Jacob finished.

"Exactly." Shepard said grabbing his armored boots and greaves.

"Well I don't know if you want my thoughts but I don't like it. Of course the illusive man and Miranda and know what's best I suppose."

"Yeah, and I hate myself for thinking like this but... It's not like the Galaxy would be worse off if she didn't end up surviving."

"Not a very reassuring thought but a valid one." Jacob said coming over to help Shepard put on his torso armor.

"I don't think we have many reassuring thoughts here but at least we will know that what we're doing will stop the collectors."

" Amen to that. Was it like this when you were hunting Saren?"

Shepard shook his head as Jacob passed and his arm around him. "Not really. With Saren when you are always right on his tail, and while there were some bad missions, we didn't have the time to worry about them. They kind of sprung up on us. Now we know about our overall Target and we know that is not going to be easy. On the other hand it is nice to be properly funded this time. We never had enough funds to get all the gear we needed and we had to buy all of our weapons. It's nice to just be able to requisition them and have them arrive quickly. "

"Cerberus certainly isn't stingy with the money and I'm pretty sure no one has a problem with that."

"That's for sure." Shepard muttered pulling on his bracers and gloves. "Anyway, I should go Miranda and Zaeed have probably been waiting long enough."

"All right, good talking to you Shepherd." Jacob gave Shepard a wave as he grabbed and holstered his weapons.

"You too, Jacob." Shepard said letting the armory door hiss closed behind him. Turning around he called out to the redhead working at the terminal next to the Galaxy map. "Kelly."

"Yes Commander?" The cute woman asked turning around to face the spectre.

"I'll want you to make a report on Jack when we get back. I need to know who I'm dealing with."

"Of course commander. Did you get the report with my thoughts on the Krogan?"

Shepard paused for a second. "Yeah I did, But I haven't had the chance to look over it. I'll make sure to read it before I decide whether to wake him up or not. Thank you."

"No problem Commander."

Giving his yeoman a smile Shepard continued on, his heavy armored boots thumping loudly on the metal floor as he walked towards the bridge. As he neared the pilot's seat he could hear joker irritably responding to something. "I've never used an Autopilot for docking before and I'm not about to start using one now." On the dashboard next to the pilot's seat, the glowing blue orb of EDI was being projected out, its "mouth" widening and closing as it responded.

"Safety regulations strictly advise against docking with another ship manually mr. Moreau."

Coming to a halt behind Joker's seat Shepard gave the two soldiers a nod as he announced his arrival to the pilot. "How long until we dock?"

"No more than five minutes commander. Assuming EDI doesn't annoy me to death before then." Joker mumbled under his breath.

"The dangers of manually performing a deep space docking with another vessel-"

Shepard raised an eyebrow at Joker who leaned back in his chair, withdrawing his finger from a button next to EDI's holographic projector with a self satisfied smirk. "Finally, now I can dock this thing in peace."

At his words Miranda stepped forward, her arms crossed. "No matter your personal thoughts on EDI, it does bring up a valid point. Attempting to dock manually is extremely dangerous."

"Joker groaned, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "Ugh! Not you too. Listen, I only ever use the autopilot when I'm sleeping or eating. Not when I'm landing, docking or any other time. Commander you tell them. All those time I docked the original Normandy that was me, not some autopilot."

"I trust Joker, if he says that he can land the Normandy without an autopilot then I believe him."

"He's not just landing the ship however, he's docking with another sip in space. It's far more-"

"Enough." Shepard cut in. "If Joker says he can do t then he can do it. I doubt something as mundane as docking with another ship is nearly as difficult as dropping the Mako on Ilos was."

"Very well commander."

"Bur Joker," Shepard grinned suddenly "You said that you only have an autopilot on when you're eating and sleeping. What if you need to take a piss? Wait do you have a shitbucket under that chair?"

"What? No! Of course I don't." Joker exhaled "Ok, so I use an autopilot then as well but that's beside the point."

"Is it?"

"Ha, ha. Yes it is."

Shepard chuckled quietly. "All right. Bring us in Joker. And if you scratch the paint then I'm going to force you to play dodgeball with the entire team."

"Do you even have a ball to play with?" Joker questioned.

"If need be we'll replace the ball with biotics and concussive shots."

"Great next thing I know you're going to try to get me to dance by shooting at my feet like in the vids."

"That is an excellent idea." Shepard laughed turning to face Miranda and Zaeed. "Allright, Zaeed now hopefully this isn't going to get messy but my gut is telling me to come armed so here you are. "We're picking up a criminal by the name of Jack. Apparently she's the strongest human biotic which is saying something. Unfortunately she's also extremely violent so we'll need to careful with here. Now Cerberus is transferring the payment so all that this should be is a simple pick up job." Shepard paused for a moment.

"But it's not going to goddamned be that simple." Zaeed stated.

"Yeah I don't think so. Which means that while Miranda and I are conducting business with the warden, a Turian by the name of Kuril. I'll need you to stay on the lookout for anything unusual."

"I can do that no problem."

"Right now the entire prison ship is under the control of the blue suns which means I doubt its just a simple Prison ship. Seeing as how we're buying Jack's freedom I have a feeling that this is more of a prison and ransoming racket hybrid. Regardless of how they operate apparently they are holding thousands of criminals here, so they can't be all that bad." Shepard shrugged "Anyway do any of you have any questions?" Shepard inquired as the normandy shuddered slightly before stilling entirely. "No?" He asked as both Miranda and Zaeed shook their heads. "Good."

"We're docked and secure Commander, and without the autopilot." Joker called out.

"Well done Joker, looks like your dancing lesson is canceled."

"But I was looking forward to seeing you dance again commander." Joker quipped.

Shaking his head with a smile on his face Shepard motioed for his two teammates to follow him. "Alright let's go."

The decontamination process progressed quickly if quietly. The only sounds being the soft hissing of the air vents, the whining of the scanners and the soft footsteps as someone shifted their weight. As such it didn't take long until the airlock doors slid open, revealing the extended docking tube. Shepard stepped forth first, exiting the airlock and starting to stride down the tube, Miranda and Zaeed flanking behind him. After a couple of seconds the group walked out into a long hallway that stretched out to their right. As they progressed down the hallway, they could see the Normandy clearly visible through windows where it was sitting in the hangar. Their eyes were however drawn to the end of the hallway where three people wearing full blue suns armor stood waiting. A turian stood in front of a circular doorway which sat on a slightly raised platform with a man that judging by his size and build was either an unusually tall human, or a batarian. In front of the stairs stood a far smaller man, likely an average sized human. All three suns stood with their rifles drawn but held non threateningly, aimed off low to one side.

The turian gave Shepard a nod as he drew closer and spoke up in a dry rehearsed voice and phrase as he greeted them. "Welcome to Purgatory Shepard." The sentence told the Spectre that it was likely that this man was one of the people who greeted most comers and judging by the slight undertone of dry humor, he said the same thing to each visitor.

"Your package is being prepped and you can claim it shortly. As this is a high security vessel, you are going to have to relinquish your weapons before we proceed."

One of Shepard's eyebrows twitched upwards a moment before his upper lip curled into a sneer at the thought that they were demanding that he relinquish his weapons. "You want me to relinquish my weapons?" He asked incredulously "Yeah sorry but that's not going to happen."

"I'm sorry sir but you are going to have to relinquish your weapons." The turian repeated sharply gripping his rifle tighter but keeping it lowered.

"Alright. Alright." Shepard yielded throwing his hands up for a moment before lowering them to his waist, yet instead of acquiescing to their demands his hand darted toward his pistol and snatched it from its mag clip on his hip and brought it up to aim squarely at the turian before he could react. The heavy Carnifex hand cannon unfolding with a loud clicking sound as it locked into its operational position. Behind him, Zaeed had drawn his own rifle and at it aimed directly at the suspected batarian while Miranda hadn't made a single move towards her own weapons. The cerberus operative hissed something to Shepard who didn't pay her voice any mind. "I'll relinquish my weapons one bullet at a time. We might be here a while." He growled eyes flashing dangerously at the blue sun mercenaries.

The Troopers froze, clearly taken by surprise not having expected this sudden hostile action and had obviously not been prepared for it. The standoff maintained its position for a few tense seconds as the Mercenaries kept their weapons lowered so as not to provoke the spectre. The turian twitched nervously as the door behind him slid open and a grizzled turian entered hurriedly. The turian was not wearing a helmet which revealed his scarred but unpainted face as his eyes darted back and forth taking in the situation. "Everyone stand down." He called out, his words hanging in the air as Shepard studied the new arrival. A second passed until Shepard shrugged and lowered his pistol slightly, Zaeed following suit. "Commander I'm warden kuril. You have to understand that this is merely a safety precaution. Your weapons will be returned to you on the way out."

"I'm keeping my weapons thank you very much." Shepard's voice, accompanied by his hard glare made it very clear that he wasn't about to change his mind on the subject.

Kuril met his gaze and after another few seconds the warden capitulated with a slight birdlike dip of his head. "Let them pass, our facilities are more than enough to accommodate three armed guests.

With a self satisfied smirk, Shepard holstered his pistol pointedly ignoring Miranda's death glare directed at his back. With a nod from the warden the three blue suns stepped to the side allowing the group to pass.

Kuril turned and walked next to Shepard guiding him along the twisting halls of purgatory. It was easy to see that the Turian "Warden" was furious, yet he wisely opted to stay silent as opposed to voicing his irritation. The Warden's silence was however short lasted as the moment they entered a hallway with completely transparent walls. Outside they could see a large courtyard, the walls completely lined with what looked like cargo containers. As they watched a crane lowered down from the ceiling, two prongs extending out towards one of the containers where they slotted into two receptors. As it was pulled out from the wall Shepard could see a man in prison fatigues trying his best to stay on his feet as the cell was moved to another hallway where it fit directly into a docking module.

"Each cell is a self contained modular unit." Kuril informed shepard seeing him glance at the cell "I've blown several out of an airlock as an example. We house thousands of criminals in cell blocks much like this one. The whole ship can be put on lockdown in a moments notice, or if a single cell block goes into open revolt we can open the airlocks to that particular cell block blowing all prisoners out into space. Nothing goes wrong here." Kuril bragged looking at Shepard intensely.

"Impressive, all this can't be cheap to maintain. Where does your funding come from? There can't be many people looking to free these people."

Kuril shook his head sharply. "There are not and in generally I am very loathe to let any of these people free. Our primary means of funding comes from the planetary governments where the prisoners come from. Each government pays a monthly fee to keep these people here."

"Alright, but what happens if the planet decides not to pay?"

"Well we inform them that without their funding we will be unable to continue keeping the criminal here and that will be forced to drop them off on their homeworld at an unknown place and time."

Shepard arched an eyebrow. "So you're blackmailing them."

Kuril's face darkened "You may question my methods commander but don't question my motivations." He snapped. "These criminals are dangerous and I'm keeping them locked up."

Shepard's eyes narrowed as he studied the turian next to him "There's something you're not telling me."

Kuril huffed in irritation "Of course there's something I'm not telling you." He said turning away and continuing to walk down the hall. "You don't expect me to detail all of our operations here do you? Now I'm going to go make sure the funds from cerberus cleared."

"Was there a problem?"

Kuril glanced back at Miranda. "Hopefully not, however I do need to be sure that they've arrived in order to release jack. Just continue down along this hall to the cryogenic prisoner control center. I will join you there shortly." Not giving Shepard a chance to say word, Kuril turned and walked down a side hallway quickly vanishing from sight around a corner.

"Something suspicious is going on here." Zaeed muttered.

Shepard nodded in agreement "He seemed to be on edge far too much."

"Perhaps it had to do with you threatening his life and the lives of his men?" Miranda asked acidly.

Shepard shook his head. "It wasn't that." He muttered pausing as a group of four Blue Suns marched past them. "Take that for example." He motioned towards the mercenaries retreating backs. "No idle talk between them, complete silence. In perfect parade ground marching order. Most soldiers, even turian ones, aren't that committed to that level when not on the parade ground. These are mercenaries which are usually even less disciplined yet here they are, showing far more discipline than professional militaries."

Miranda watched a pair of Blue Suns who stood guard outside a door. "You have a point. It's not just our presence here, these guards didn't scramble to present themselves when we rounded the corner. They were already at full attention."

"Exactly." Shepard agreed as they approached the guarded door. Muffled thuds accompanied by pained shouts could be heard through the door and as they drew abreast to it they could see through the window into a cell where a prisoner was being viciously beaten by a turian guard.

"Torture?" Miranda exclaimed in slight surprise. "How despicable."

Shepard narrowed his eyes abruptly stopping and wheeling about to face the guards standing outside of the cell. "THere's no excuse for beating a man who can't fight back."

Without even turning his head to face the commander the guard replied staring forward. "We have our orders."

"If you keep beating criminals then you're no better than them.:"

"Like I said sir. We have our orders." The turian responded still looking directly forward.

A snarl grew on Shepard's face as he glared at the turian "You will stop this torture now."

For the first time the turian guard turned to look at Shepard for a second "I will stop this torture now." he echoed hollowly before turning towards the cell door. "Hey Tulpius. Call it off."

The guard inside hit the prisoner one last time with his club. "What about our orders? It's only been three minutes."

"We've been ordered to stop this torture now."

The guard inside looked taken aback. "Alright." He said shrugging as he approached the door.

Seeing the beating had stopped Shepard turned away and walked on towards the cryogenic facility.

"Orders? What kind of prison ship is this?" Zaeed exclaimed incredulously.

"That's something I intend to ask Kuril when we speak to him." Shepard said. "Did you notice anything strange about them the first few times I told them to stop?"

"No hesitation." Miranda answered.

"Exactly, they remained at attention the entire time. But then the last time he did a massive flip, breaking parade ground attention and started acting differently. A complete personality shift." Shepard explained as they approached the control room for the cryogenics cell block. "There is something strange going on and I intend to figure out what's going on and why they are acting the way they are." he finished as the door hissed open and upon seeing into the room Shepard froze.

"The reasons the blue suns are so disciplined is because they are afraid of me Commander Shepard." Darth Nox said from where he stood looking out of a large window. "A good application of fear does wonders for discipline amongst worms."

"You." Shepard exclaimed upon recovering from his shock at seeing the subject of all of his recent nightmares.

"Yes me."

"I should be surprised. But somehow I can't bring myself to be." Shepard muttered.

"And why might that be?" Nox questioned finally turning around to face the group.

"Probably because you've made a habit of appearing everywhere I go."

Nox shook his head. "No. You knew that I would be here today. You could sense it unconsciously. Its why I'm here, to have a little conversation that has been a long time coming."

"Oh great. So you're here because you want to talk to me. You know what? Fine. Why are you here. Why did I apparently 'know' that you were here and why have I been having all these goddamned nightmares!"

Shepard had taken half a step forward, his chest heaving at the end of his outburst glaring at the sith in front of him, faintly aware of the looks coming at him from his two team members.

Nox stood silent for a few moments. "So you have been having visions. It is quite simple Commander, the same power that warned you of me being here, the same power that has been granting you those visions, the same power that had you bring Mr. Massani with you here, now. That is a power that not many can hope to access, yet a power that I have mastered and one that you have been taking your first fumbling steps into accessing. Now finally you have the power of the universe at your fingertips. All you must do is grasp it. I will instruct you in such and under my training you will grow more powerful than anything this galaxy or another can throw at you."

Shepard stared at the Sith as if he were insane. "I don't need any training, least of all from you. I've managed this long without your force."

"Have you?" Nox inquired quietly. "Tell me, How often have you made decisions based off of random feelings? Seemingly irrational and impulsive decisions that had later turned out to either save your life, the lives of your men or otherwise avoiding utter failure had you continued along your previous course?" Nox's head slowly turned toward Zaeed "Or even now? Why did you bring Massani specifically with you here despite having no way of knowing that his most hated enemy Vido Santiago would be waiting for him?"

Silence filled the room as Shepard could not find a suitable counter argument. Yet the silence was broken as Zaeed fully processed the Sith's words. "Vido is here?" His gravely voice coloring with fury.

"Oh yes. When I realized that Shepard had brought you along I had him brought up. I'm sure that it won't bother you too much but Santiago… is no longer quite himself."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Shepard questioned as the sith moved over to the console in the middle of the room.

"Exactly what I said commander." Nox told him pressing a button and causing a door on Shepard's right to slide open, revealing two blue suns standing outside. Hanging between them was a man, his brown hair was matted and filthy the same as his clothes, little more than rags that hung from his emaciated frame. His head hung limply down hiding his face from those in the room. "Come on in Santiago." Nox called out staring at Shepard. "An old friend of yours would like to say hello."

The two blue suns unceremoniously threw the man into the room with sharp jabs into the middle of his back. Unsupported he fell heavily to the ground where he lay quivering. Shepard glanced over at the man next to him who stood watching the fallen man with an expression of absolute disgust on his face.

"Look who's come to visit you Santiago." When a few seconds passed without the man reacting Nox slowly raised his left arm, his hand forming a wicked claw "I said _look."_ He growled his voice low as a blast of lightning erupted from his outstretched fingers. A pained shriek burst from Santiago's lips as the force attack struck him squarely in the back as he writhed around trying to escape the pain. As quickly as he had started it Nox ceased his assault lighting subsiding until only small sparks flitted along the prone body who lay wheezing in pain.

His face lay turned toward Shepard revealing dull brown eyes that traveled listlessly over Miranda and Shepard before finally coming to a rest on Zaeed where a faint spark of recognition appeared in them.

"Zaeed." his voice was a mere whisper cracked and hoarse no doubt from the torture he had been subjected to. He shakily started pulling himself toward the mercenary pleading all the while "Please, help me."

Shepard's gaze turned from the pathetic begging man over to the sith lord who stood tall. His mask prevented Shepard from seeing exactly where the sith was looking yet the spectre could his gaze burning into him, he could almost see those amber eyes piercing his very core.

"What did you do to him?" Shepard asked horrified.

Nox tilted his head. "I enforced my power. Vido santiago served a valuable purpose of reminding all the consequences of earning my wrath. I broke him and he serves a valuable lesson which when coupled with what happens to those who serve me loyally and well results in a strong and efficient power base. One that does not question me something that you have obviously not accomplished."

Shepard stilled as his mind immediately jumped back to the standoff at the entrance where miranda had not followed his lead and directly after where she had questioned him.

Nox nodded slowly "You see you still do not command the power that I do. You do not command absolute loyalty and if there are those who are disloyal or those who question you…. Then you're power is divided and useless. Only through me can you learn true power and achieve victory against the reapers." Nox extended a single hand "Kneel, pledge yourself to me and I will teach you how to command true strength."

Shepard stared at the sith in silence only dimly aware of the continued begging from Santiago who had reached zaeed and was scrabbling at his legs. Shepard's silence dragged on for several long seconds. He didn't know how long he stood there staring at the sith who stood with his hand outstretched motioning for Shepard to kneel. Suddenly a loud crack yanked the human from his inner turmoil he looked to the side to see Zaeed raising his boot from the back of Massani's neck where he had just curb stomped him into the ground snapping his neck.

"Good riddance." The grizzled mercenary growled raising his gaze from the dead man ling at his feet.

"Take him away." Nox ordered motioning to the two guards who immediately strode forward, grabbing Santiago by his legs and dragging him out. As the door slid closed behind them Nox turned to face the window once more. "Well I think that you wanted to take the prisoner known as Jack with you. I have heard much about her and it will be intriguing to see how much is true."

Shepard only had time to blink in surprise as the sith pressed a button on the console and turned to look back out of the window. "I've heard she is quite violent." Nox said conversationally "I wonder if we will witness some of that today." He glanced over his shoulder at shepard and motioned the human forward. "Join me. Let us witness this awakening."

"Is something going to happen?" Shepard asked cautiously joining the sith in front of the window.

"Yes. which is why I have three heavy mechs ready for her, along with an entire platoon of soldiers all equipped in full riot gear, ready to deal with her when she wakes."

Shepard turned his troubled gaze down toward a single cryogenic unit that was slowly bringing Jack out of cryofreeze. He stood there, watching as over the course of a few minutes the control cylinders were fully raised. Only then did the central unit begin rising. Faint wisps of vapor rolled out revealing the criminal Jack.

"Well. That's rather underwhelming." Nox commented upon seeing Jack which Shepard privately agreed with. Jack was small, with a slender frame and seemed to only be clothed in tattoo's a couple straps that held her breasts down and shorts that were currently clinging to her body, a side effect of the defreezing. "But that anger. Can you feel it Shepard? Such rage. I've seen sith without the rage that she is showing."

Jack's anger was very palpable to Shepard as her consciousness started to regain strength. She was restrained to the cryo unit behind her with metal clamps around her wrists, ankles and neck. Her fury washed over Shepard as her eyes snapped open as she let out a loud shout. There was a loud snap as her right arm broke free from its restraints followed quickly by her left. With both of her hands free she yanked the restraint around her neck loose. It didn't take more than a few seconds until she had fully freed herself from the restraints that held her in place.

"If she was force sensitive she would make quite the Sith." Nox commented looking down at the small woman who was now squaring off with three YMIR mechs. "But the mechs along with the-" Nox broke off as Jack let loose a loud shout and charged the mechs a ball of blue energy forming in her right hand which she brought punching straight through the first mech. Spinning around she let loose with a warp that completely disintegrated the mechs head. The last mech hardly had enough time to raise its weapon before a series of blue biotic explosions wracked its form sending pieces flying everywhere as Jack tore it apart. Without hesitation Jack ran out of sight underneath the observation room and a moment after she disappeared there was another yell accompanied by the screeching sound of twisting and tearing metal. Gunfire erupted before the screeching had stopped and shepard could hear the faint sounds of panicked shouts and screams.

Shepard glanced nervously at Nox who had slowly but confidently turned and was walking to a door on the far side of the room. The rage pouring off of the sith was palpable as it filled the room as even Zaeed and Miranda took nervous steps back from him. "I suppose it was too much to ask that worms not be absolutely incompetent. Shepard I suggest that if you want to bring Jack with you, you come with me as I will not hesitate to kill her should she prove uncooperative."

Shepard exchanged nervous glances with Miranda and Zaeed before motioning for them to follow him as he trailed behind the furious sith.

* * *

 _ **Midwanjontû châtsatul nu asha. Ashajontû kotswinot itsu nuyak. Wonoksh Qyâsik nun.**_

* * *

 _Here's the aftermath of the previous chapter. Nox now firmly has the entirety of the Blue suns in his grasp which means that future missions that feature the Suns will be quite different. Next chapter will start off with capturing Jack and while yes more or less it is going to follow the events of the game it will be a bit more of a prisoner roundup and massacre. Basically Nox, Shepard and the Suns trying to round up the prisoners while hunting Jack. It will also be the first time that Shepard truly sees Nox in action while Nox will be doing something that he loves to do. Murder and cause Mayhem._

 _Anyway until next time._


	6. Chapter 6

Nox regarded the man at his feet who lay curled up in a ball, whimpering pathetically in pain as a voice called out from behind him.

"My lord."

"Report." the Sith ordered turning to stare at Kuril with disgust.

The turian warden swallowed nervously "Shepard managed to escape with Jack aboard his ship."

"What about our losses?"

"We lost nearly two hundred guards and troopers quelling the riots. Another six hundred were injured."

"And prisoners?"

"We believe that nearly an eighth of all prisoners were killed in the riot. Unless they managed to flee with Shepard without us knowing then they are dead."

"Doubtful. They are likely to be dead. What's the status of loading the subjects onto the ship?"

Kuril blinked in surprise "I- we paused the loading of the subjects when the fighting broke out. We only managed to get about half of the prisoners loaded."

"Then I suggest you get the remaining prisoners loaded immediately."

"Of course my lord." Kuril bowed and turned to leave.

"And warden." Nox called out to the turian.

The turian froze and slowly turned around "Yes my lord?"

"I expect no more repeats of today's events in the futre, or you may very well end up like him. Do I make myself clear?"

Kuril glanced down at the blue suns commander who was still lying in a ball at Nox's feet. He swallowed heavily as the broken man began rocking back and forth, lost within the maze of his broken mind. "I will make sure to increase security tenfold my lord. There will be no more riots."

"Good. Now I want the subjects transferred within the hour, and add him to their numbers. He will not be of much use anywhere else."

"I-" Kuril hesitated for a split second as he took in the broken man. "Of course my lord." With another low bow Kuril turned and walked away as quickly as he could. Nox watched him leave, his masked lips curled into a sneer.

When Kuril had walked out of sight Nox pulled out a small flat disk and held it out in front of him, pressing a series of buttons on it causing a small holographic image of a krogan to appeared. "We had a slight delay. I will not be arriving, but the subjects will be. When they arrive I want you to begin the tests immediately. We've already discussed what to look for. I expect to have a viable prototype done within two weeks. I will view it then."

" _You're not giving me much time to work with here."_

"Will that be a problem? There was a reason why I chose you Okeer. If you are unable to perform the tasks I have set for you then I will find someone who can. A salarian perhaps." A low growl, slightly distorted from the hologram, emanated from the projector within his hands. "Then make sure it's by the time I arrive.

" _Very well my lord. I will have the prototypes ready for your arrival."_

The holographic image of the krogan vanished as the Sith placed the communicator on his belt and without even a final glance at the broken man at his feet, Nox strode down the corridor following the twisting halls, strewn with broken glass, bodies and droid wreckage. Workers and blue sun troopers alike scurried out of his way as he strode past paying them no heed as they bowed their respect.

* * *

 _Nwûl tash. Dzwol shâsotkun. Shâsotjontû châtsatul nu tyûk._

* * *

The Illusive Man frowned as he looked over various reports concerning the newcomer to this galaxy. Letting Nox run loose was certainly a risk, but he felt certain that it would pay off in the end. As long as Nox continued to provide schematics and technology to reverse engineer he would let Nox continue to do his own thing. While it certainly was slightly worrying to see the "Sith", as Nox called himself, start building an army, he couldn't do much with mercenaries. Nox had already alienated himself from Aria with his rather spectacular massacre within afterlife, and as such if it started looking like Nox would become too powerful, then Aria would not hesitate to step in and take him down. If it came to that, Cerberus might provide some assistance.

Jack Harper took a sip from his bourbon it was unlikely that much would come of Nox. He was simply an arrogant extragalactic man, once a powerful individual reduced to nothing. What was concerning however was the effect that Nox seemed to have on Shepard. His reports from the Normandy seemed to indicate that Shepard was acting more and more abnormal. He was lashing out at people more and more, becoming irritable and tense. At first he had attributed it to the stress of revival, but he had since come to the realization that Shepard's mood would get more erratic and foul every time he and Nox had any kind of interaction.

He had gone over the suit audio logs and reports from each interaction countless times, and he wasn't quite sure what Nox's goal was. It seemed as if he wanted to make Shepard desire the recognition he deserved, which made some sense, but he also seemed to be trying to make Shepard as angry as possible, which frustrated Harper in all his attempts to discern Nox's angle. He was certain that the Sith was not trying to help Shepard out of kindness, Harper doubted Nox had ever been kind in his life. No, Nox wanted something out of Shepard for his own goals, goals which Harper didn't know.

The Illusive Man stared at the holographic screen on his armrest, a single button just waiting to be pressed and open a line to the Sith. Ever since Nox had received his ship he had been extremely difficult to track. Him not requiring Mass Relays meant that he could move almost completely untraceable throughout the galaxy. The tracking devices and bugs that had been planted upon the ship had been removed soon after Nox took over. Harper was slightly surprised at this as he hadn't thought Nox to be technologically minded enough to find them. Clearly he was mistaken and as a result he'd had extremely little information on Nox's whereabouts and actions.

Harper had every cerberus agent stationed all over the galaxy keeping an eye out for either Nox or his ship wherever it may turn up, however there had been only a single sighting of Nox's ship in that entire time. It was docked at the citadel at the same time as Shepard had been there to speak to the council and pick up the thief Kasumi Goto. Harper had been around far too long to think it was coincidence. He had made sure to inform Miranda of this and have her keep an eye out for Nox, however he had not been spotted on the citadel. Infact the agents that had been watching the ship reported no one leaving or entering the _Torment._ It was obvious that Nox knew it was being watched and had made sure to enter without being seen. But he was unsure as to why.

His attention was drawn by a small alert on one of his monitors. A smile crept onto his face, it seemed that one of his many gambits was paying off, the collectors had taken the bait. Now to spring the trap, A quick message to the normandy and a few minutes of waiting later, the QEC activated and the holographic image of Shepard appeared in front of him. He hesitated for a split second upon seeing the commander who had dark bags underneath bloodshot eyes. It looked as if he hadn't slept in days. Harper knew that Shepard had been spending his nights in his quarters as per normal, but it seemed as if the Spectre hadn't been sleeping in those nights.

"Illusive Man." Shepard prompted crossing his arms.

Snapping out of his observations Jack Harper leaned back "Shepard, we caught a break, Horizon, one of our colonies in the terminus systems just went silent. If it isn't already I expect it will be soon under attack."

Shepard raised an eyebrow "I'll set a course immediately."

"Good. Has Mordin found a counter to the seeker swarms?"

"Not yet."

"Well I hope he works well under pressure. There's something else however, one of your former crew, Ashley Williams, is stationed on horizon."

The Illusive Man was taken aback by the sudden flashes of emotion that crossed Shepards face. Uncertainness, dread and anger? "I see." He said simply, which was not what he was expecting. Ever since his awakening he had kept a close eye on all of his interactions and communications and he hadn't had any communication with Williams at all from what he knew. He knew about his relationship with the Alliance gunnery chief before his death but he had no idea where the anger could have come from. Something was happening that he did not know about, and Harper hated not knowing something. He resolved to look into other possible methods of communication that Shepard might be using as soon as he could.

When it became apparent that he had no desire to say anything else on the matter Jack Harper gave him a nod. "Keep an eye out, it seems that the Collectors are quite interested in you. Good hunting Shepard."

As the commander's hologram disappeared the illusive man turned to look at another monitor, one with a wireframe image of the _Torment_ and an image of Nox on its right. At first Harper hadn't planned on informing Nox about horizon, but now with the strange way Shepard was acting, it might be a good idea to send him just in case. If the lazarus project had made some kind of mistake in bringing him back, then maybe Nox might be a good alternative. A charismatic individual when he wanted to be with a grasp of a power that had yet to be seen of in this galaxy, and a willingness to do whatever it takes. Even though he was a nonhuman, he seemed to put humans ahead of other aliens so he could very well be an acceptable replacement for Shepard. If cerberus could promise and deliver on assisting Nox in gaining power then Harper could slowly gain more and more control over the wayward Sith.

Mind made up, Jack Harper turned and sent a message to the _Torment_ and its master.

* * *

 _Tyûkjontû châtsatul nu midwan. Midwanjontû châtsatul nu asha._

* * *

Shepard stood panting over the sparking wreck of the Pretorian that they had just finally managed to destroy as the sun's last rosy fingers bathed the entire courtyard in a soft red glow. Garrus, Grunt and him had fought their way through countless Collectors, Husks and their new Scions until they finally reached the control center for the guardian defense cannons where they had defended it against wave after wave of collectors until they unveiled their newest creature, that they had somehow named a Pretorian. Shepard himself wasn't sure exactly how they started calling it that, but somehow they had and now it was apparently its name.

"EDI how long on those guns?"

The words had hardly left his mouth when he saw the nearest guardian cannon turn and aim at the collector ship and fired. Similar blasts echoed from all around the colony as all of the other cannons opened fire as well. Shepard let loose a sigh of relief, finally it was done, but he didn't have long to relax as EDI's next transmission immediately caused him to tense right back up.

"Shepard, I'm detecting more collectors moving in on your position. I suggest you prepare your defense."

"More collectors?" Garrus asked "They really don't know when to quit do they."

"Good, more for me to kill." Grunt said excitedly.

But before they could do more than take a few steps towards cover, the collectors arrived. Shepard stared up in disbelief at the sheer number of collectors that flew down towards them, wings buzzing as they alighted in the courtyard "Son of a- Move! Get in cover" he shouted sliding behind a pile of boxes as the collectors opened up. It seemed that they were in for another long firefight when Shepard felt more than saw or heard the presence that was by now very familiar, due the haunting it had been doing in his sleep. Slowly turning, the firefight and collectors completely forgotten as he faced the direction the stifling, malevolent aura was emanating from. There, silhouetted in front of the red evening sky stood the familiar black robed figure on the roof of a building.

* * *

 _Ashajontû kotswinot itsu nuyak. Wonoksh Qyâsik nun._

* * *

Nox stood standing atop the building watching as the Collectors began advancing toward the three figures below. Shepard had stopped fighting, instead he was glaring up at the shrouded figure of the sith, his emotions completely wild and chaotic. The Krogan was laughing gleefully as he took down collector after collector, ignorant or perhaps not caring of Shepard's inaction. The other alien though had clearly noticed Shepard's troubles as he was calling to him while still trying to shoot the incoming bugs. After basking in the chaos of Shepard for a little longer, Nox released a satisfied sigh as he fully released control of his aura and let it flare fully just as the sun vanished behind the horizon.

The effects were immediate as an unnatural cold seeped into the air and tendrils of mist started flowing off of his body. His eyes started glowing a deep bright purple as the dark side gathered around him in a protective cocoon. The collectors hesitated only for a second upon spotting him before some of them began attacking him. Yet just as the first shots were fired at him a barrier of lightning formed around him deflecting and stopping all the shots that were being aimed at him as he started to draw the force around him and funneled it into his hands, energy started crackling around his slowly raising and with sharp jabs he began sending lightning blasting from his fingertips. The lightning strikes were devastating, each blast of electricity would send yet another collector twitching down to the ground a sparking corpse.

In this manner Nox managed to kill almost fifteen collectors before the collectors managed to break his barrier. Nox jumped high into the air avoiding the shots from the collectors drawing and activating one end of his lightsaber and channeled the force his left hand and as he fell towards the ground Nox brought his hand slamming into the ground. A wave of lightning and dark purple force energy rippled outward from his hand sending nearby collectors and boxes flying away and releasing a large cloud of dust. Slowly rising to his feet Nox raised his lightsaber to deflect a yellow beam of energy from one of the collectors. Using the deflected beam, Nox sliced through two other collectors before the collector firing managed to stop.

Ever since Nox's appearance Shepard and his team had managed to fell another fifteen or so collectors leaving only a fraction of their original force remaining. Nox idly activated the second blade of his lightsaber turning to face this remaining group of Collectors as he did so. These collectors had all clustered around each other and one of the collectors had started convulsing as light began shining out of various parts of the collector it rose up into the air and with a final jerk and burst of orange light it fell back to the ground as a loud deep voice spoke out.

" _ **I am assuming direct control."**_

Nox grinned as he took a few slow steps towards the now burning collector. The collector turned and stared at Nox before speaking again.

" _ **You are not part of this galaxy. You are an anomaly. You are chaos. Order must be achieved and so I must destroy you."**_

"I'm quaking in my boots. Truly I am. Please, I've heard more intimidating things from a hutt. I am a Sith Lord. I am darkness incarnate. You and all your little collector friends are nothing more than insects, desperately trying to burrow their way into the sand, capable of little more than feasting on the corpses of my enemies."

" _ **You're confidence is wasted. You cannot stand against us."**_

The force shrieked a warning and without hesitation, Nox twisted out of the way of the ball of flame that the glowing collector had thrown at him. Reaching out with the force he seized half of the collectors and tossed them to one side, their bodies colliding with each other and the wall with a series of sickening crunches. Avoiding another blast from the possessed collector Nox killed the remaining regular collectors with a blast of lightning that arced its way around the group killing each collector that it it until dissipating on the possessed collector.

Turning to face the last collector Nox leaped into the air as it started shooting at him. Deactivating one of his blades so as not to impale himself, Nox came down his blade pointed down over the collector who dodged to the side just in time to avoid being impaled. Rolling to the side, Nox avoid a strike from a wicked curved and jagged blade that the collector had pulled from its waist. His victory came swiftly as he finished his roll and when the collector tried striking at him once more Nox brought his saber up and easily sheared through the collector's blade. The collector didn't have time to react as the second blade was activated and sprung forth piercing through the collector's torso.

Taking a step back, Nox fully deactivated his lightsaber as a flame spurted out of the new opening in the collectors torso. The collector fell to the ground, the fire that had been emanating from its body now extinguishing. " _ **This form has reached its end."**_

"Well that was anticlimactic." Nox muttered. "I'll admit." He said turning to face shepard. "I was hoping that they would send something bigger, like that four legged creature you fought."

Shepard looked over at the sith lord "Just how long have you been watching us?"

"Oh I've been following you since before you talked to that one in the bunker."

"Then why didn't you-" Shepard was suddenly interrupted by a thunderous roar and a blast of flame that erupted from the collector ship. Shepard, Garrus and Grunt all spun around to watch as it slowly but surely started to lift off from the ground, sending plumes of dust and smoke billowing into the sky.

"They're pulling out!" The turian Garrus shouted over the noise.

"For now." Nox returned turning away sensing two minds approaching. The first was of little interest to the dark lord, but the second, the second was key to his plans. Shrinking back into the shadows, Nox wrapped the force around him, using it to alter others perception of him and not notice his presence, just as the first person ran into the town square.

"No! Don't let them get away!" The mechanic shouted at Shepard.

"What do you expect me to do? Shout angrily?" The Spectre scoffed.

"They took Egan and Sam, and and Lillith! Do something"

"I did my best. You just hid like a coward in your damn bunker." He shot back.

The turian stepped forward "That's right. Show some respect. Without Shepard you would all be in that ship."

The mechanic furrowed his eyebrows "Shepard? Wait, I know that name."

It was at this point that the second person walked slowly out of an alley. "Commander Shepard. Hero of the Alliance, Savior of the citadel. You're standing in the presence of a god Delan. Back from the dead."

Shepard's eyes had snapped over to look at the new arrival. A woman with long black hair and brown eyes walked up to the commander and stopped a few meters in front of him. "Ash?" He asked taking a single faltering step forward as myriad of emotions flitted across his face. A soft smile grew on the Alliance marine as she stepped forward to close the gap between the two reunited lovers.

"I- I thought you were dead. Why didn't you try to contact me?"

Shepard stiffened, as he heard the hint of accusal grow in Ashley's voice. His thoughts grew dark as the two slowly pulled apart. "You don't sound happy to see me. Something bothering you?" he asked mockingly. Ashley had no right to complain. She at least had been alive for the past two years which is more than he could say for himself.

Shepard's tone did not go unnoticed by the Alliance Soldier and her response was indicative of her anger "Yeah, something's bothering me. I spent the last two years believing you were dead. We had something, something real. I loved you-"

"Well judging by how quick you are to judge me I wonder how real that actually was." Shepard interrupted loudly.

"Judge you?" Ashley's anger temporarily gave way to confusion before changing right back at Shepard's next statement.

"Yeah, you and the council and the Alliance. You're all so easily to forget what _I_ did for the galaxy." Shepard near shouted. "That _I_ saved the galaxy from Sovereign. That _I_ killed Saren. That _I_ gave my life for all of you only for you to all immediately turn around and bury every single thing I did in that time. Then when I was brought back to a galaxy where humans are being abducted by Collectors I find that no one is doing anything and when I start trying to help people, I'm immediately attacked because the ones who brought me back are cerberus. The only organization in this damn galaxy seeming to give a fuck about the people being abducted."

Later Ashley would realize that this was the first time she'd ever heard Shepard swear, or shout. Shepard never shouted, no matter how bad a situation they had been in, Shepard had stayed as unflappable as a rock. Always remaining the bastion of strength on the Normandy. She would remember all the times that Shepard had been calm in situations that had others shrieking in rage. Originally she had believed this be because he thought himself above everyone. That he was aloof, however in the time that she had spent serving on the Normandy with him as her Commanding Officer had shown her how wrong she had been. That he did care he just knew that as the CO he had to be strong. When she had finally realized that her opinion of him had shifted completely. But it was only when they had become lovers that she had truly grasped exactly how much he was hiding behind that mask of unflappability.

Had she not been as angry as she had, perhaps she would have realized that something was wrong. She would end up blaming herself for what would happen to Shepard in the future. For her partial role in what Shepard would become. However at this time she had not recognized the warning signs, she did not realize that her words would end up creating a new evil and instead began shouting back at her former lover.

"Excuse me? I don't know if you've realized but the alliance sent me to get these defense towers online in order to prevent exactly these kinds of attacks!"

Shepard spread his arms and motioned at the carnage around him sarcastically "Oh and that did a spectacular job didn't it? Oh wait, no it didn't. You needed me to come in and save everyone yet again. It's all I do. And do I get any recognition for it?"

"Saving people isn't enough? I remember how you would jump at a chance to save lives, you wouldn't ask for any recognition or reward."

"And we all see how well that turned out for me don't we? The council ignoring the threat of the Reapers. The Alliance unwilling to do anything as well, instead focusing on matters that really don't matter. Maybe if I had demanded recognition for my work something would have been done on the Reaper front. But no, I was naive and for my naivete I died with all my work buried. Well guess what, no longer will I stand idly by while others stomp all over my hard work. No longer will I stand fools leeching off of my success."

"Is that all you think of me Shepard? Do I need to remind you that I had to fight tooth and nail to get to where I was, you had little to do with my success." Ashley spat.

"YOU WOULD BE DEAD IF NOT FOR ME!" Shepard bellowed. "If not for me finding you on Eden Prime you would have died to the geth and did I ever get any recognition for that fact? No. Instead all I got was -" Shepard's voice raised an octave as he mockingly mimicked Ashley's own "Oh its Commander Shepard, he saves people, he just saved me. That's good I guess. Lets go hunt Saren!" His voice lowered back to its normal range "You make me sick."

Ashley's lips had turned white, a stark contrast to the rest of her flushed face that truly belied how angry she was. "I'm done talking to you Shepard. I can see that the alliance was right about you and I need to report in." She said and turned around and strode away.

"That sounds great Williams. Why don't you go and tell some lies? Take all the credit again! It would be easy you know just tell them that it was you who saved the day, no one would question you after all I am only the one who saved the galaxy and died! We all know that they will believe you! Prove me right! I'll show you! _I_ will kill the collectors. _I_ will beat the reapers. _And I will make all of you pay for betraying me!_ " The last sentence was shouted toward the corner that Ashley had vanished around leaving Shepard standing, filled with rage and a newfound hatred for the alliance soldier.

Silence fell over the courtyard and when Shepard glanced around he saw that Garrus and Grunt had both vanished at some point during the shouting. It was likely that they had left when things had started to get ugly. The only person left in the courtyard aside from Shepard himself was the Sith who had at some point removed his mask. "Lord Nox." He started, for the first time calling the Sith as a Lord "On Purgatory you said that I had the power that you have."

"I did."

"Then if you instruct me in your ways, and give me the power to get the recognition I deserve then I will follow you."

A sinister smile crept onto Nox's face. "Then kneel."

Without hesitation Shepard dropped to one knee. "And swear loyalty to me as my apprentice."

Shepard bowed his head and looked at the floor at Nox's feet "I swear myself to you my lord. I pledge myself to you and your teachings, my master."

"Rise, Apprentice. Rise and take your first steps as a sith."

"What would you ask of me?"

Nox regarded his new apprentice for a few seconds. "Because of the situation we find ourselves in and your general lack of knowledge of what it means to become sith we will have to alter your training accordingly. We do not have much time, however your training must begin and so you will join me for one week. During which I will begin to impart upon you what it means to be sith. Make your excuses for we will begin immediately."

"Very well my lord. I may have an acceptable excuse. The Normandy is in need of a retrofit and Garrus has a line on obtaining a new weapon system that will be most useful against the collectors. I can debrief my team and order Miranda to take the Normandy to be retrofitted. That way time will be ideally spent."

"That is an acceptable plan apprentice. Begin preparations and when you are finished your training shall begin in earnest."

"Yes Master."

* * *

 _A/N:_ _Sorry for the delay, but hopefully such delays will no longer occur nearly as much. I recently got a laptop for University which has also had the side effect of making me want to write far more than before. I think that in the 3-4 days since I've gotten my laptop I've written more than I have in the past 1-2 months. So thats a good thing. I think it's a mix of being able to write at places other than my desk which means the creativity just flows alot easier; it means I don't get distracted as much by all the other things that go on on my Desktop PC, i.e games, the internet. Etc. etc; And its not quite as difficult to type, while my desktop keyboard is a good keyboard it is meant for gaming in mind and not typing alot. So all those things combined make for a much more pleasant writing experience for me._

 _Anyway as for the chapter itself. It may seem a bit fast to have Shepard already becoming Nox's apprentice, after all this is only the 6th chapter but I think that the majority of the story is going to be the rest where Nox is building up his empire with Shepard as his enforcer._

 _The argument between Ashley and Shepard went extremely differently than it did in the game, because of course Nox is around and he's manipulating things to work in his favor, there's Shepard's nightmares where he's been dealing with exactly this situation so he knew one possibility of what was going to happen, of course he didn't know that that it was just that, one possibility and so he ended up causing what happened in his vision without realizing it. Shepard believes that Ashley turned against him because he is working with cerberus and the dark side is clouding his judgement. So really his untrained force potential being corrupted by the dark side resulted in his new line of thinking one very different from the paragon he used to be._

 _Now some of you may think that he fell a bit too quickly after all he is commander shepard and is very strong willed, to that I say yes he is, however we know that there are jedi who were just as strong willed as he was who also fell, sure it took them quite a bit longer but it happened. Now we take someone who is pretty strong willed, but we make them an untrained force user who a Dark Lord of the Sith has invested some effort into and I think that in that situation even the most strong willed, but untrained person would succumb. Looking back on it I probably should have shown in more detail exactly how much effort Nox was putting into this, but that would make me go back and rewrite stuff already written and that will be relatively annoying for me to make sure it all still fits._

 _Anyway that was a bit of a long A/N: but I felt like now was a great time to say some of these things._

 _Anyway hopefully the next chapter will come quite a bit sooner than this one did. I'm certainly feeling up to it right now, I definitely hope that that feeling will continue in the future._

 _Until next time and as always,_

 _May the force serve you well._

 _~LEGION_


	7. Chapter 7

"Peace is a lie. There is only passion.

Through passion I gain strength.

Through strength I gain power.

Through Power I gain Victory.

Through Victory my chains are broken.

The force shall free me."

Darth Nox's voice rang out confidently in bright sunlight. After Horizon Shepard had quickly informed Miranda that despite her protests he would be taking a leave of absence from the Normandy for a week while it was being retrofitted with its new Thanix cannons. He did not bother informing her of where he was going for he did not quite know, only that he would be gone for a week and that she would be in command until he got back while making it explicitly clear that if anything were to go wrong, he would hold her responsible.

With the Normandy enroute to be retrofitted Shepard had boarded the _Torment_ and had immediately begun his training. The few hours of basic meditation exercises were nothing like the meditation he'd done in the past, where instead of trying to find calm and inner peace he had now been tasked with focusing on all of his emotions, especially his rage and hatred at Ashley. At first Shepard had resisted, not wishing to relive those painful few minutes but he had quickly done as Nox had demanded, the sith informing his apprentice that his emotions would give him strength. Nox then recited exactly those words that he was reciting now, informing him that the answers lay within those words and to ponder them carefully. He had done so until the _Torment_ had exited hyperspace, its way of Faster than Light travel which was able to cover far more distance than conventional FTL travel. The only thing faster that Shepard knew of, were the Mass Relays.

Reverting to realspace Shepard had gazed upon a planet that he had never seen or heard of before. It looked to be an ocean planet with only two continents, one about the size of Australia on earth, the other slightly smaller. The rest of the planet was dotted with countless islands all of varying sizes yet none nearly as large as either of the two continents. Had Shepard seen the planet a week ago he would likely have been breathtaken by the beauty of the view. But now the vista went unappreciated as he felt the thrumming energy that was emanating from the planet below. When he mentioned the feeling Nox had merely stated that it was the force that he was feeling and that this planet contained a nexus of pure force energy, untouched by either the light or the dark side. Nox had been drawn here over the countless hours of meditation and that as far as he knew it contained no mass relay anywhere nearby and the only way to reach it was via hyperdrive.

"That is the code of the sith." His master continued as Shepard pulled himself from his thoughts, knowing that Nox would not approve of his apprentice's wandering thoughts. "You have had some time to ponder the words. What do they mean?"

Shepard's answer came quickly "That one should embrace their passions, their emotions in order to further one's drive, or your strength. That with the strength of your convictions the more others will follow you and believe what you do. Which will allow you to do whatever you wish and allow you to break the social norms that would hold you back."

Nox regarded Shepard for a few moments. "An acceptable interpretation. There are countless interpretations of the code many of which I will not instruct you in. You will need to study the code for yourself. One such interpretation is why should one limit one's self to your own passions. A Sith who can master one's own emotions can only grow to be so powerful. But one who can master the passions and emotions of others, that is a sith with unlimited possibilities and ultimate power."

"I understand."

"Good. Now it's time to change things up slightly. Defend yourself." Nox said tossing a small cylindrical object at Shepard who caught it on reflex. With no hesitation Nox stepped forward and activated his own lightsaber swinging it down in a diagonal downward slash. Taken by surprise and without the chance to examine the weapon in his hands and without any knowledge of the lightsaber Shepard fell backward with a startled cry nearly tripping over a nearby bush as Nox's lightsaber cleaved through his torso. Shepard released a pained hiss as the lightsaber burned his skin and singed the clothes he was wearing. "I said defend yourself!" Nox admonished as if he had fully expected Shepard to be able to figure out how to use a lightsaber the second after he had first held one in his hands. He did however give Shepard some time to glance over the weapon in his hands as he paced back and forth once. This brief respite allowed him to find a button on the side that when he pressed it ignited the blade unleashing its beam of bright red energy.

No sooner had Shepard managed to activate the lightsaber did Nox begin his new offensive sending a horizontal slash that would bisect him just below his ribcage. Again caught offguard Shepard tried to sloppily block the attack only for Nox's cut to easily break through his guard. "Again. Tuck your elbows in. Left foot forward right foot behind! Feet a shoulder's width apart."

Shepard rushed to follow his master's instructions and when Nox's next attack came Shepard managed to completely block the horizontal swing. Any elation he may have felt however vanished when Nox's next attack came in and slashed him from shoulder to hipbone, taking advantage of his lapse in attention. Shepard gasped at the pain but quickly forced down the pain ignoring it.

"Do not lower your guard. Again!"

And so it continued. Shepard clumsily defending against Nox's attacks which would not cease until he had scored a hit on his apprentice, with no words of encouragement only harsh pain and shouted words of criticism. Shepard did not know how long this went on, only that eventually every small movement brought him pain and never once did Shepard manage to even get close to landing a strike on the sith lord. However Shepard did not once complain instead he ignored the pain continuing to fight through it, determined to not be the one to tap out, his anger growing at the ruthlessness of Nox until that anger overflowed and he snapped as Nox landed just another hit on his arm and instead of stopping Shepard sprung on the offensive attacking blindly in his rage with no goal other than finally landing a hit on the sith lord.

If Nox was surprised by this sudden aggression he showed no instance of it instead continuing the fight, countering every strike with one of his own avoiding every thrust with a stab. For Shepard it felt like that fight went on for minutes until finally Nox deftly knocked his Lightsaber off course and taking a neat diagonal step slashed downward catching Shepard's forehead with the tip with a blow that would have carved a deep furrow into his brain had his lightsaber been at full power.

"Enough." the single spoken word stopped Shepard up short panting heavily as he glared at his master. "What did you do differently then than before?"

Shepard's eyebrows tightened at the question "I attacked you?"

"And the other thing?"

Shepard remained quiet for a minute as he wracked his brain as to what had changed until finally he ventured "I got angry?"

"Now recite to me the sith code."

Shepard blinked owlishly "Peace is a lie there is only passion…" He trailed off as he caught on to Nox's meaning.

"Go on." Nox ordered.

"Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion I gain strength. Through strength, power. Through Power, Victory. Through Victory my chains are broken. The force shall free me."

"Precisely. Next time I expect you to immediately draw upon your passions for then and only then can you make the force your weapon."

"Yes master."

"Very well. Now go find a suitable location to make camp."

* * *

 _Nwûl tash. Dzwol shâsotkun._

* * *

Shepard woke with a start to the sound of a nearby howl in the jungle. The sun was just now setting bathing his camp in blood red light, even after all the time he'd already spent on the planet due to the much longer days that it had compared to earth. He scrambled to his feet as the howl sounded again much nearer this time. Lord Nox was aboard the _Torment_ , leaving Shepard alone in the jungle to deal with whatever predators this planet hosted. Nox had told him that surviving each night would be a test of the skills that he learned. If he could survive each night then his training would continue the next day. A test that Shepard took in stride. He'd had to do similar things in the ICT, which meant that this was nothing truly new. Of course in N-school the trainees had at least been watched over to try and keep mortality rates low, Shepard doubted that Nox would be as lenient. These nights could very well becoming fights for survival but Shepard would win those fights. He'd died once already, he wasn't about to die again.

Grabbing his combat knife, the only weapon Nox allowed him to keep with him, Shepard slipped out of the tent and melded into the shadows that were slowly overtaking the camp as the sun set behind the horizon. A little way away sat the _Torment,_ little more than a dark shadow, its lights off and its boarding ramp raised. To one side of the Camp was the ocean the murmur of its waves crashing against the sand a constant sound accompanying the sounds of the insects that started swarming him as he slowly creeped along the outside of the camp, eyes straining in the darkness to see the source of the howl that he had heard so closeby. As he rounded the corner of his tent, he froze, spotting a dark shape slowly approaching the camp. For a moment it passed over an area that was still barely being lit by the sun giving shepard a slightly better view of the creature. It looked like a feline about four and a half feet long with dark spotted fur and a bristling mane that ran along its spine. A long bushy tail twitched idly back and forth as it approached. It continued a little farther until it too stopped its tail stilling and its eyes gleaming in the darkness as it stared in Shepard's direction.

He gripped his knife tightly as a low growl emanated from the creature. Shepard started to feel the telltale signs of fear starting to set in but before he could bury that fear he remembered his master's words from before. His fear slowly ebbed away as it was replaced by anger at this creature for daring to threaten him, for daring to interrupt his sleep. Now filled with anger Shepard rose threateningly from his crouched position and stared hatefully at the gleaming eyes of the cat creature that shrank back for a moment before it stepped forward again and let out a loud screech. As it screeched at him the skin around its head peeled backwards revealing the bones, teeth and musculature underneath, providing an all in all unsettling visage. Shepard's upper lip curled into a sneer at the disgusting creature but did not back down.

And so they stood with locked eyes, Man and Beast attempting to gain dominance over the other and neither willing to surrender any advantage to the other. The feline ended up losing the contest of dominance as it broke eye contact several long moments later and with a low growl backed up and vanished into the darkness of the jungle, leaving Shepard standing in the campsite. He waited for a little while longer to see if it would return but when ten minutes had passed with no sign of the creature, Shepard entered his tent again in order to get as much rest as possible before he would be woken by his master.

* * *

 _Shâsotjontû châtsatul nu tyûk._

* * *

The moment he felt his master's presence nearby Shepard woke from his sleep. It was completely dark the only light coming from the clear unpolluted night sky yet he knew that Nox was nearby, waiting on him. He quickly scrambled out of his tent to find the hooded and shrouded figure of Darth Nox standing in the middle of the camp. He approached his master and knelt in front of him.

"Master." He murmured and waited. A few minutes passed in silence with Shepard kneeling at Nox's feet without a word being spoken until eventually Nox drew his hands from where they had been hidden inside his robes, in them Shepard spotted the glint of starlight reflecting off of a metallic object that Nox promptly extended out to Shepard. The sith apprentice reached out and grabbed the lightsaber that he had trained with previously. Bracing himself for another grueling deuling session Shepard remained kneeling but on alert for any movement from his master.

"The art of lightsaber combat, while an important art to learn will be less important here. What you will need to learn is the defense against other methods of attack."

Shepard gave no sign of movement, he remained on alert but kept his eyes lowered, the darkness made seeing anything aside from large shapes impossible so when he was suddenly struck in the back of the head by a small rock he winced and saw stars. Jumping to his feet he spun around to stare into the darkness behind him activating his lightsaber as Nox stepped back. Shepard's eyes strained in the darkness for any sign of what had hit him to no avail as another rock smacked him in the right side. Another followed shortly after striking him in the small of the back and soon enough he was flailing wildly the red blade of his lightsaber casting a red glow around the camp but still not enough to see the rocks that kept striking him.

"Why do you try to see when you cannot?" Nox's voice called out from somewhere around him. "Do not try to see what cannot be seen. The force is your tool. Use it." Nox's words had caused a short lull in the flying rocks allowing Shepard to regain his balance. Focusing on the pain from all the welts and bruises Shepard drew upon his anger and rage his lips curling into a snarl as he slowly turned on his heel. There he could feel the seductive power curling up around him to completely encase him in its power, and in its power he felt where the next rock would strike him, saw it flying through the air and heard it whistling as it sailed toward him only to be met by the red energy of his lightsaber as he smashed the rock aside, disintegrating it. Another rock was met by the blade followed by a third and a fourth. The frequency of the rocks coming at him began to increase soon Shepard's blade was always moving as it intercepted everything that was being thrown at him.

So in tune with the force was Shepard that as the last rock struck him he could feel the power coursing through his master a little way away and twisting toward him he raised his lightsaber to block the blast of lightning that had been sent at him by Nox. Shepard opened his eyes to see the last of the lightning to dissipate off of his blade.

"The force is your greatest weapon, I will show you how to wield it." Nox spoke pacing forward "A sith with a mastery of the dark side possesses the ultimate power. The ability to torture your foes. Kill them quickly or slowly. Turn them against one another. Twist them to suit your needs. Even prolong death and transfer the spirit from one host body to another. The true limits of the dark side are nonexistent. Everything can be done, provided you can master it. But the Dark side does not like to be controlled it will fight you constantly it will seek to control you and weaken you. If you submit to its control you will be weaker for strength is only gained by strife. _Through passion, I gain strength._ When you dominate the force, then you will have the _power_ to defeat anything. You will gain _Victory_." Nox paused in his pacing as he stared at Shepard "No sith that has maintained control over the force has died. The only sith that have died are those that lost control to the dark side, knowingly or not. And one must be careful for when one submits to the force then they feel the strongest, but that is merely a lie, an illusion that the dark side will provide you, and eventually the dark side will abandon you as quickly as it came. You will be left weak and pathetic. Power can only be maintained by dominance."

"I understand master."

Nox shook his head "No you don't. Not yet. But you will if you hope to gain that power. This is a holocron." He told Shepard pulling out a small pyramid from within his robes. "It contains all the knowledge that you will need throughout your training. You are to study it in the evenings when we are here and you will continue to learn from it when you return to your ship."

"Yes master." Shepard bowed his head as he took hold of the pyramid and carefully placed it in his pack.

"Make sure you do. I will not tolerate apathy. Now raise this stone with the force."

* * *

 _Tyûkjontû châtsatul nu midwan._

* * *

The long night slowly dragged on until eventually just as the sun's rays slowly began creeping up over the ocean. Nox continued pushing his new apprentice harder and harder hammering in as much information as possible. He was satisfied by Shepard's endurance which he contributed to the extreme training that he had gone through to gain his N7 designation. It was most aggravating to have to instruct Shepard in the most basic lessons of the force, the most basic exercises and the most basic knowledge of the code but it would be worth it, and the holocron that he had made for his apprentice would be sure to instruct him in the basic things that he could not teach now in these short few days. Nox had not informed his apprentice how to activate the holocron, leaving him to find out how to release the spirit within on his own. He didn't expect Shepard to be able to activate the Holocron for some time, but the extra incentive that Nox would provide would expedite that process.

They had been training for more than twenty hours and while Nox could sense the exhaustion setting in on his apprentice, he also felt that Shepard's newfound rage was allowing him to remain alert and aware despite the exhaustion. Finally Nox called a halt to the endless repetitions that he had Shepard doing.

"Enough. Your second day of training is complete. Four more remain. On the fourth you will undergo your first trial. I will return in six hours to resume your training." Nox told his apprentice, turned and strode away toward the _Torment_ where he would rest himself. Shepard's exhaustion soon grew more apparent to the sith master as he ended the training leaving his apprentice to prepare for his rest. Nox reigned his aura in slightly just as he had the previous night so as to allow the creatures of the jungle free reign of the camp once more. All creatures seemed to keep a wide berth of Nox's unrestrained power, fearing the dark side as an overpowering threat that they were all keen to stay clear of, but at night Nox reigned in his aura so that his apprentice could be tested at night. He had found Shepard's dealing of the beast that had come to visit him in the night acceptable. Intimidation was a key part of being Sith and while the intimidation of beasts was both easier and more difficult than intimidating sentients, it was a valuable foundation on which to build.

As Darth Nox immersed himself into flowing eddies of the Dark Side, he navigated the churning labyrinth of the future seeking paths and knowledge about his plans. Using the nearby and broiling presence of his new apprentice, Nox latched onto his signature and used it to temporarily clear the shrouds of times yet to pass and watched carefully as events past and future collided in a dizzying assault on his senses. But Nox was used to such experiences when gleaning information of the force and quickly squashed any discomfort that he would have felt, instead concentrating on how the events that he was watching unfolded. And when the sith had learned all that he could of worth he wrenched himself free from the visions before they began to become too outlandish. The sith opened his eyes to the rising morning sun as he pondered the visions he had seen.

* * *

 _Midwanjontû châtsatul nu asha._

* * *

"Apprentice." Shepard did not move from his knelt position. "Rise for the time has come." Slowly drawing himself to his full height, Shepard regarded his master, his eyes now a sickening amber. "You have done well in your training and as our time is quickly running out I am sending you on your first trial. Normally you would be sent to the Tombs on Korriban to recover ancient relics of past Sith Lords. But for you here, I have a simple task. In the Jungle there is a great beast, a pack leader that lords over the predators of the island. You have encountered these creatures multiple times over the past few days. You will kill this pack leader and slaughter the pack."

Shepard bowed his head "Yes Master."

"Go. Make your preparations and do not return until they are dead." Darth Nox watched as his apprentice bowed once more, turned and strode back to his camp. A smile of anticipation flitted across Nox's lips as he watched his apprentice go. Over the past few standard days Nox had observed the creatures that lived upon the island and he had come to the conclusion that they possessed higher than normal intelligence and while not quite yet Sentient, they were well on their way to becoming thinking creatures. In addition and of most interest to him he had observed them using the force. However what was unacceptable to the Sith was that the Creatures were becoming more and more bold, venturing close to the camp even when Nox had flared the dark side in response to their snooping. The creatures were proficient hunters and would be an adequate challenge for his apprentice.

* * *

 _Ashajontû kotswinot itsu nuyak._

* * *

Shepard's red blade cut a blazing swath through the undergrowth leaving burned and broken branches and bushes in his path as he hacked his way toward a subterranean cave system where he believed that the beasts of the jungle resided within. Armed only with his lightsaber, combat knife, biotics and the dark side he was a juggernaut of fury, a bringer of doom to these pathetic creatures. He had already been spotted by a pair of the creatures who had tried to attack him only to be butchered and left to rot at the base of a great tree, nourishment for the worms and insects of the planet. Shepard made no attempt at remaining hidden as he neared the first of three cave entrances. He had made a detailed scan of the caves and had decided that he would be caving in two of the entrances in order to be sure that none of the beasts could escape.

As the first entrance came into view Shepard saw the gleaming eyes of the creatures in the darkness in the cave watching him warily as he approached. No doubt they had seen him training with his master, along with the few times that they had been driven off by the two sith but did not know what he was doing in their domain now. With a sneer Shepard glowed blue and began throwing orbs of unstable biotic energy at the walls and ceiling of the cave entrance. The creatures let out shrieks of alarm and retreated deeper into the cave as dust and shards of stone were sent flying by the repeated warps. When Shepard deemed the stone to be sufficiently weakened, he reached out with the force, drawing upon his rage and clenched his iron grip on the cave ceiling and pulled sharply. With a loud crack and low rumble the stone gave way to his fury, caving in and sealing the entrance, releasing plumes of dust into the air.

As the last stone rolled to a standstill, Shepard turned and began running through the jungle as fast as he could, increasing his speed with the force until he was little more than a blur dashing through the dense undergrowth. Crimson lightsaber slicing cleanly through any bushes or branches that stood in his way. By the time he had reached the second cave entrance he could feel the fear billowing out from within the cave system. The beasts had recognized the threat that he posed to their lives and the resulting fear was intoxicating to the sith apprentice. Again as he arrived at the secondary entrance to the cave he found more eyes watching him from the darkness. Feeding on the fear Shepard once again began caving in the entrance with biotic blasts weakening it until the stone was compromised enough that a yank from the force was enough to collapse the earth and stone onto the entrance. By now the beasts fear had reached panic levels and Shepard could sense the large amount of animals rushing toward the last cave entrance.

A sinister smile took root upon Shepard's face as he made his way to the access point of the caverns. His lightsaber hummed ominously as he stepped out toward what was merely a small one and a half meter in diameter hole, nicely concealed by a cleft in a small cliff face, covered by a bush. With a screech and a nervous skitter four large feline beasts bounded out of the darkness one after another just as Shepard reached the entrance. They froze upon seeing him as if shocked that he knew about their secret exit and exchanged glances with each other before turning to face him with low growls. Shepard bared his teeth in anticipation arms outstretched at shoulder height, lightsaber held parallel to the ground, pointed at the creatures threateningly.

The first one, a fine example of a creature with a sleek and well groomed black fur coat leaped forward with a loud screech. The screech was cut off by a yelp, violent his and the smell of burnt fur and flesh as Shepard shifted his saber slightly and let the creature impale itself upon his blade. Springing into action Shepard began his deadly dance of destruction, his lightsaber cutting as easily through flesh and bone as it cut through air. The stench grew stronger with every slaughtered beast, the cloying smell of blood joining it as he threw his knife at one of the felines, scoring a hit on its flank and letting the crimson liquid well up out of the wound as he recalled the knife catching it as it flew towards him.

It was over before it could truly begin. Shepard stood over the corpses of the four felines, their once well kept fur bloody, charred and clumped together by mud. Without any regard for the dead creatures bodies, Shepard stepped over them, one of their spines giving way with a loud crack as he stepped on its back and entered the dark cave system, illuminated by the red glow of his lightsaber. Though he had his omni-tool on him which could help illuminate the darkness, Shepard opted to keep his lightsaber as his only source of light as it would serve to terrify his prey as he killed them.

And so he marched, the apex predator among predators heralded only by the shrieks and yelps of those he slaughtered as he carved a bloody path through the caves, leaving only the dead in his wake. The satisfaction that he felt as he butchered his way through the pack, the power of the dark side as it followed him the rush of seeing his victims die upon his blade was as addicting as any drug. He had never enjoyed killing previously he had thought it a terrible thing every time he had to kill another person. Even the batarians when they had attacked elysium he had regretted killing as many as he did, but he had always done his duty. Now though, he wished that he had savored all those deaths. He wished that he had accepted the chance to kill batarians on Torfan. He wished that he had made everyone pay for daring to stand in his way. _But_ he thought as he messily carved up a male and his mate who had been trying to keep him from their young _at least I now have the ability to make sure that everyone who crosses me will not live to regret it._

He regarded the kits of the two animals he had just butchered. Two of them were mewling in fear and confusion scrabbling away from him as quickly as their small unsteady limbs would let them. The third however was not, it was sitting on its haunches staring unblinkingly at Shepard. The sith apprentice cocked his head, while the force was saturated with fear and death, he did manage to find the kit sitting in front of him. It's fear was obvious in the force if not obvious through sight, yet it sat there, staring at him with interest. As if it were studying him just as he studied it. Without breaking eye contact with it Shepard reached out with the force and tightened his grip on the throats of its two littermates. Their squeals and their airflow were cut off, as they gasped pitifully for air behind their jet black sibling who broke eye contact with Shepard to cast a long glance behind him at the last of his dying family. Yet before they died it turned back to resume its staring at Shepard who's lips curled into a smirk. This creature interested him in its actions so he would let it live. It would be the only member of the pack to survive to pick among the ashes of what had once been a powerful band of predators.

When the two young creatures finally fell silent, Shepard turned, breaking eye contact with the jet black kit and continued down towards the heart of the cavern. Only a few more groups stood in his way to be slaughtered until finally it seemed that they had completely given up on trying to attack him and now while trying to avoid him only got driven further and further back. He stalked forward, lightsaber held relaxed in his hand as he entered a much larger cave with two other branches leading out from it and in the middle of this cavern stood a much larger beast than the rest. As he stepped in and surveyed the creature, which Shepard presumed to be the pack leader, it hissed loudly, the hiss soon being echoed by other creatures which quickly started to pour out of the other entrances to form a half circle around Shepard. A smirk grew on Shepard's face as he witnessed the creatures arrayed out around him in the darkness, their bodies only dark shapes with glowing eyes reflecting the red light from his blade.

When Shepard made no immediate movement upon seeing the pack leader in front of him, the creature in question slowly padded forward. Until its head was a mere three meters away from Shepard's own. It was a magnificent beast, twice the size of any of the others and with long sleek grey fur, its mane white with black stripes running down the length of it. Its eyes a yellow almost matching Shepard's own, yet lacking the red glow that Shepard's had ever since his resurrection. The two sized each other up and after a few seconds of near silence in the cavern the pack leader let out a resounding screech, the skin on its face peeling back reveal the ghastly image of its skinless head. The tactic meant to frighten only served to enrage Shepard and with a wordless howl of his own Shepard lunged forward red blade of his lightsaber seeking to score a hit on the pack leader.

Despite Shepard's considerable speed, honed by the ICT and augmented by the force the pack leader managed to nimbly leap to one side avoiding the glowing blade of energy. Shepard blinked in surprise, none of the other creatures had managed to avoid his blade before. However the surprise was extremely short lived as it soon gave way to anger and with another yell he hurled himself at the pack leader who again seemed to just manage to slide gracefully out of the path of his blade. This time however it didn't just dodge him as it quickly pounced forward its claws outstretched and seeking to tear into Shepard's unprotected belly. A snarl escaped Shepard's lips as he flinched back narrowly avoiding being eviscerated. He quickly brought his blade back to swing at the massive creature only to once again miss and have to backpedal frantically as the alpha countered with a vicious bite to his arm.

Changing tactics Shepard flared his biotics as he wrapped himself in a barrier of blue energy and jumped forward right into a claw that smashed him to the side sending him sliding a few meters in the dirt. His barrier held throughout, leaving him unharmed by the claws and only minorly scratched by the slide across uneven ground. Hate erupted within him and he reached out in the force and grabbed hold of a large rock partially buried in the wall and with a mighty heave threw it towards the great beast. To his shock the creature did not move to avoid the rock which was slowing down and quickly came to a halt in front of the beast, resisting Shepard's every attempt to stop it.

Gaping in astonishment Shepard nearly missed the pack leaders pounce that came out from over the floating rock. Sprinting to the side Shepard managed to avoid the falling creature that would have crushed him beneath its weight and as he spun around to face the pack leader again his eyes fell on the pack of creatures that had not moved from their positions. They all were staring directly at the rock with unnatural determination and as he watched their gaze moved to stare at him. The change in their gaze signaled a new target for the stone as it was propelled directly at the Sith Apprentice who twisted to the side allowing it to bury itself in the floor with a muffled _thud._

Eyes narrowing in concentration Shepard once again changed his tactics. Grabbing hold of yet another rock and hurling it at the pack leader Shepard waited for it to stop as the rest of the pack focused their powers upon it and the moment that the alpha pounced on him again Shepard dashed forward and dropped to the floor twisting to look upward as the beast flew over him. With a shout Shepard flared blue and propelled himself straight upward smashing into the alpha and sending it tumbling heads over heels into the dirt flailing as it did so. Another raw yell and Shepard threw himself in the midst of the pack where he began cleaving his way through the felines mixing his lightsaber with his biotics. The sudden assault sent the creatures scattering back into the tunnels from where they had come. The pack dispersed, Shepard turned to face the alpha once more.

Now alone the two slowly circled each other, measuring each other up having already fought. Shepard used this opportunity to place himself back in front of the entrance that he had come from, making sure that nothing could pass him. Upon seeing that Shepard had planted himself, and had stopped moving, the Alpha stopped and did the same, but Shepard quickly noticed that it had stopped looking at him and its low threatening growls had turned into urgent meows. Casting a glance over his shoulder Shepard saw what had drawn the Alpha's attention. There in the cave behind Shepard sat on its haunches was the same jet black kit that Shepard had spared earlier, its eyes taking in the scene emotionlessly. A dark laugh rose up Shepard's throat, causing the Alpha to glare at him hatefully. Calling upon his biotics Shepard threw an energy orb that struck the ground in front of the alpha that almost seemed to raise an eyebrow incredulously at the biotic until its disbelief turned into surprise when the orb erupted in a swirling singularity that warped gravity. Stone and dirt was torn free and quickly whirled around within the glowing orb and the Alpha began scrabbling against the ground, its claws digging deep furrows into the earth as it was dragged toward the singularity. Yet it could not defeat the strength of the gravity anomaly and before long it was bending rather painfully around the biotic sphere.

Glowing blue once more, Shepard warped the creature and when the unstable biotic energy of the warp collided with the Singularity the effect was a spectacular detonation. Rocks and dirt were sent flying, accompanied by the ear ringing explosion and when the blue fire cleared, the Alpha was lying a few meters away from where the singularity had been, most of its fur gone, and its skin raw and torn in many places. Blood leaked from its entire body and it took gasping breaths as it lay defeated on the ground.

Slowly stepping forward until he was standing over the defeated creature's head Shepard regarded the beast for little more than a second before raising his lightsaber above his head and thrusting it downward into its skull. The great beast lay silent and Shepard drank in the feeling of its death as the dark side rushed in to revel in the death of the once proud creature.

* * *

 _Wonoksh Qyâsik nun._

* * *

Darth Nox stood near the ramp of the _Torment_ waiting patiently as he felt his apprentice coming, the dark side fully settling in on the new sith and the new cave system, now a mass grave of near sentient force sensitives. It was likely that the massacre would corrupt the cave with the dark side for centuries to come and would be a good place to train new sith within. But first it was time to return to the galaxy at large. The rustling of leaves and the snapping of twigs heralded the arrival of his apprentice. "Well done Apprentice, you have done well. The beasts of the jungle are no more and the dark side flows through you with the completion of your first trial." Nox paused for a moment as he took Shepard in, blood staining his clothes and eyes turned ochre with dark power. "Yet it seems that your task is not yet complete."

Shepard's eyes turned confused for a moment before he glanced back at what Nox was looking at. There in the shadows stood the one survivor of the slaughter, in the light of the sun Shepard could now see that what had at first appeared as jet black fur in the darkness was more of a dark brown with flecks of grey dotting its hide.

"Tell me apprentice. How is it that a creature so small managed to survive your slaughter and why it has followed you here."

"It intrigued me when it showed no reaction to me killing its parents and siblings, nor when I put down the Alpha. I decided to let it remain the sole survivor of my visit. I do not know why, but it has been following me all this time."

"Has it?" Nox inquired squatting down as he stared at the young creature which slowly and hesitantly stepped forward. "Intriguing. Why would you come so willingly to such danger, hmm?" He crooned "Apprentice, Kill it." He said still crooning as he grabbed it gently in the force and held it still.

With a moment of hesitation Shepard turned to the beast and as it turned to look at him a definite hint of fear and betrayal activated his crimson lightsaber and with a vicious slash cleaved it in two.

"Well done, apprentice. Next time leave no survivors so that we may avoid wasting time later. Now kneel." Slowly and only after casting a final glance at the dead feline Shepard fell to one knee. "You came to me a lowly human, one who had been scorned countless times. You arrived here a worm insignificant and weak. You leave here strong and powerful. You leave here a Sith Apprentice."

* * *

 _AN:_ I don't really have much to say here other than that Nox has not yet given Shepard a new Name, that will become later, especially since he comes from the Sith Empire where Shepard becoming a Sith Lord is already extremely fast. Shepard hasn't really been trained fully as a Sith yet, there just wasn't enough time to do so in a week. But he put down the groundwork, left out some less important things and focused on the things that Shepard would need in the near future. Next chapter will return to the galaxy and master and apprentice will go and do their own things with Shepard returning to the normandy and Nox expanding his own influence.

The lightsaber combat in this is going to be less inspired by kendo and more inspired by medieval european sword combat as I am far more familiar with that style of sword fighting.

Until next time guys.

~LEGION


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N: So it came to my attention via a reviewer that at the end of the last chapter I made a slight mistake. I meant to have Nox tell Shepard to rise as a Sith Apprentice but apparently what I wrote was a Sith lord. He's not a Lord yet, but he is officially Nox's Apprentice. Just figured I'd let you guys know that._

* * *

 _Nwûl tash._

* * *

"Apprentice." Nox stood staring out of the viewport of the Torment as the planet grew smaller and smaller behind them "I have one last task for you. You must gain the complete and utter loyalty of your crew so that they will never think or dare of betraying you. You have multiple options in achieving this goal. You can either gain their loyalty through fear, or you can gain their loyalty by solving problems that they have, problems that you may have to create in order to solve. Either works, however once their loyalty is gained you will have to make sure to reinforce your dominance any time they seek to question you. They must learn that your decision is final and that you will not be challenged."

"I understand master. What advice would you have for me in this regard?"

"Begin with your second in command. Lawson will be able to greatly assist you if you can gain her loyalty first. She will understand your goals and will work to assist you with them."

"Yes master. Where should I begin?"

Nox gave his apprentice a long look. "Family is the best place to start. Look to her history. Seek out the name of Lawson and piece together her past. Does she have family, if so can you use them in some way to manipulate her."

"Very well. She has extensive genetic modifications, it's likely that her family is wealthy."

"Then you know where to begin. The family name of Lawson. There will be records of them available for you, especially with your status in the galaxy you will be easily able to find what you must."

"I will do as you command."

"Good. Now have you learned how to unlock the holocron?"

Shepard lowered his gaze to the floor and shook his head. "No master, I have not yet discovered the secret."

Nox gestured toward the back of the _Torment_ "Then you will have enough time to do so during the hyperspace trip. You will find quarters in which to do so back there."

His apprentice bowed lowly as he exited the cockpit "Yes master."

Turning to the controls of his ship Nox began to plot the long and treacherous path back to the civilized galaxy. This galaxy only had starmaps for regions around their Mass Relays which meant that the space that he would have to navigate through was completely unknown and would require frequent stops to make sure that he was still on the safe path.

* * *

 _Dzwol shâsotkun._

* * *

Many hours had passed by the time the _Torment_ had returned to mapped space and after a few mass relay jumps Nox set his eyes on the asari held planet of ilium, a mere tiny spec in the distance of the solar system. Setting the ship to follow its autopilot Nox stood from the pilots chair and made his way through the empty halls of the _Torment_ to where his apprentice was learning how to access his holocron. As he approached the room where Shepard was quartered within he heard the spectre talking to a womans voice. A tight smirk grew on his face as he opened the door to find his apprentice kneeled in front of the glowing red pyramid which was open and projected above it was a crimson hologram of a woman wearing what Nox knew to be red robes, even if the hologram wouldn't bathe everything in its crimson glow.

"I see you have learned the secret to the holocron and met my own master."

"Ahh apprentice!" Nox's smirk vanished as he heard those words in that same cheerful tone and inflection that he had heard so much as an apprentice.

"I would kill you again if I could for that." He said calmly looking down at the small image of Darth Zash, his former master.

"If I were alive, you would not be." she quipped "And lets be honest here you never really killed me in the first place."

A predatory grin grew on Nox's face "Oh very true. I merely trapped your spirit in a rakata mind prison for all of eternity. You're real self would probably beg for death if she could speak with me now wouldn't she?"

The holocron of his former master fell silent at his words and after a moment Nox closed the holocron and looked at his apprentice who had been watching the exchange between sith and former master carefully. "Now then my good apprentice, after having learned all that you have about my own master along with what she will likely tell you in the future, it is time for you to make your way back to the Normandy. We will be landing within the hour. I suggest you prepare yourself."

"I am ready, my master." Shepard said getting up and walking behind his master as he made his way back to the cockpit to take the ship into dock.

As Nox sat down in the pilot's seat he gave his apprentice a hard look "Now you know what you will tell your crew about what you've been doing this past week?"

"Nothing."

The barest hint of a smile appeared on the Sith's face as he began the descent down to the planet's surface. "Very good. When you return to your ship you will continue on as you have been. Hunting down the collectors is an important first step in our plans. I will contact you should I have need of your talents."

"I will do as you command."

* * *

 _Shâsotjontû châtsatul nu tyûk._

* * *

Nox stood on the ramp, hood raised and masked once more as he watched the form of his apprentice brush past the asari that was walking up to the _Torment_.

"Good afternoon sir. We do not seem to have your ship in our database. Is this your first time visiting Nos Astra?"

Nox did not answer merely shifting his gaze to rest on the asari. She had purple skin and was wearing revealing blue and white dress, obviously meant to seduce or at least distract the people she interacted with. The asari was however unperturbed by his silence and continued speaking after only a moment of silence.

"Well there is a docking fee here in the Nos Astra spaceport that all ships are to pay upon arrival. Normally for all returning ships we can just deduct the funds directly from the account given to us, however as you are a new arrival we will need you to fill out some forms and pay the fee's required. I have all the paperwork required right here if would like to fill them out now." She asked with a winning smile revealing straight pearly white teeth."

Again Nox did not react, not shifting his posture once as he watched the asari who now shifted slightly, uneasy as she glanced around. "If you would prefer I could speak to your companion that left earlier. I'm sure it would be quite easy to find him here if need be."

Finally Nox spoke "That will not be necessary." Nox raised his hand and shaped it into a claw directed at the asari "In fact I believe that it is not necessary that _I_ pay the docking fee."

Her eyes grew wide and unfocused as Nox's power washed over her. "Yes, yes you're right. I apologize for wasting your time. I'll just go ahead and mark you as one of our VIP's shall I?" Her voice had become slightly hoarse.

"That would be ideal."

The asari nodded once and turned to leave "Then our business is concluded. I hope that your stay here will be a productive one."

She walked back down the way she had come, not once looking back even as she heard the ramp raise and the sound of the engines activating. She continued her way away from the docking bay, rubbing her head tiredly as a headache began to set in, not suspecting that by the end of the day she would be instituted into psychological institute as her mind began to fracture due to the power and carelessness of Nox's manipulation.

* * *

 _Tyûkjontû châtsatul nu midwan._

* * *

Nox was up and moving the moment the _Torment_ touched down in the science facility hangar bay, striding down the ramp as it lowered to the ground and gazing around at the assembly that awaited him. A company of troopers, likely previously blue suns now clad in new black armor and bearing the emblem of his future Sith Empire awaited him in perfect formation, arranged by species and forming a corridor for him to walk down. He stopped partway down in front of two figures who both sank to their knees in front of him.

"Darth Nox." Warlord Okeer rumbled from his position knelt on one knee, his head bowed in respect.

"Warlord Okeer. I trust you have made headway in your efforts?"

Okeer remained kneeling but raised his massive head to look up at the sith lord. "I have my lord. I have multiple prototypes ready for your evaluation."

"Very good. And you doctor? I trust that you have made similar strides forward?"

Dr. Alexa Kovacs nodded "I have already managed to complete a few specimens for your evaluation my lord.

"Then show them to me. I have many more places to be." Nox ordered sweeping past the two kneeling doctors who hastily stood up and moved to guide the sith through the research station currently orbiting a remote planet within the Shrike abyssal.

"Of course my lord. The labs are just this way, past the dormitories and the canteen." Okeer motioned down a long hallway lined with multiple doors. "I ran into very few problems with the cloning and the imprinting process itself. I had already perfected that particular art back on Korlus with krogan. I merely had to adapt the process used to the differing species. While there were a few… mishaps with the first subjects the second run was far more successful with only minor deficiencies which will be able to be addressed in subsequent runs."

"What sort of mishaps?" Nox asked.

"A wide variety ranging from physical to mental defects. Some of the asari went on quite the uncontrollable rampage when they woke up. Tore up the lab they were being held in quite soundly before we managed to put them down. One of the humans ended up with a tail, I am honestly not quite sure how we managed that, but it was quite the sight." Okeer explained.

Nox glanced at the krogan scientist "Unless the physical defects are of any use to us, either by enhancing the subject's capabilities or by utilizing them as a method of inspiring fear, I have no use for them. The mental ones could be of use however, is it possible that we could use some of them? If we could create a template that we merely have to unleash on our enemies, one that has no knowledge, no goal other than destruction, that would be of value to my forces. A good weapon of terror."

Okeer grinned "I believed you might be intrigued by that, so I set a team to work replicating that phenomenon in all the different species."

"Very good." Nox nodded approvingly "What about setting it up on a trigger for all of the templates or for other ones? I want to be able to send all of my troops into a rage at a mere command, or perhaps if they get in a position where they might get captured."

Okeer hesitated for a second "I am not sure if such a thing is possible but rest assured that I will set my teams to discovering the secret should it be so."

"Make sure they do. For you will be held responsible should they fail." The sith warned, his voice promising agony. "And you Doctor? What about the cybernetic enhancements?"

"Ahh, well that is something that I am sure you will be extremely pleased to witness for yourself my lord. The cybernetics labs are just through here." Dr. Kovacs said opening a door and stepping to the side to allow Nox to enter.

Giving the blonde human a hard look Nox walked through into a laboratory, filled with various scientific instruments that Nox did not care enough to try to identify. What did however catch his eye were the large containment cells that lined the walls of the lap inside of which were standing, sitting or lying a variety of differing species of differing genders, all of which showed signs of various extents of cybernetic augmentation.

Some of them had very obvious signs of cybernetics ranging from mechanical limbs to complete limb replacements where arms had been replaced by various weapons. One of them hardly looked human any more, instead it seemed to be fully encased in bone white metal armor with a red visor over its eyes. Both of its forearms had been replaced by weapons and carved into its large pauldrons was the insignia that Nox had chosen to represent his new empire. The six arrows pointed outward bore resemblance to those of the sith empire, yet gone was the hexagonal shape that had been borne from it, replaced instead by a series of two rings. It's presence was an indication of change, much like the change the cyborg that Nox was currently looking at.

"One of our more advanced prototypes. It has had heavy vehicle grade armor grafted onto its flesh. Its muscles have been replaced by synthetic muscle weave and its hands and arms have been replaced with some of the weaponry schematics that you provided me with. It has on its left arm mounted a light laser cannon capable of taking out lightly armored vehicles and infantry with ease, while its right arm has been replaced with an ion cannon for shutting down vehicles. This variant will be more than capable of taking in both infantry and light vehicles. In large enough groups I believe them to be able to easily engage heavier armor as well. Finally we have implemented a powerful control chip which completely suppresses any thought that you do not wish for it to have. It will be completely and utterly loyal to you my lord. In fact we have done so to all of the subjects, in varying degrees of strength. Some are incapable of much independent thinking anymore. Others, like this one can still think, yet are utterly devoted to you my lord."

"Impressive." Nox commented as he regarded the cyborg in the cage for another minute before continuing on to regard the rest. He examined all of the prototypes in the containment cells listening to Kovacs' description of each of them until finally they came to the final two cells, the first of which contained an asari who looked completely unaugmented and the second cell which contained a turian who also looked completely natural.

"Ah these two. My the cybernetics teams were most proud of these two specimens." Dr. Kovacs said coming to a standstill in between the two cells. "Do not let their appearance fool you for that is exactly what they are meant to do, fool anyone who sees them into thinking that they are completely normal yet they have been modified nearly as much as some of the other subjects. Their entire skeletons have been replaced, along with their entire musculature. All of their organs have also been either replaced or augmented extensively yet they are still able to pass all except the rarest and most invasive of scans without their augmentations becoming visible. They are, according to my scientists, the best sleeper agents that you could ask for, capable of living completely normal lives and infiltrate the highest echelons of governments and by using integrated transceivers can send data and receive orders from just about anywhere in the galaxy with access to the extranet. You could abduct a high ranking government official and have them undergo surgery to either gain all of the cybernetics of these two, or just the ones that is required of them, then send them back to their jobs with no one the wiser."

"That will be of extreme value to me in the future." Nox turned to look at the krogan who had remained silent during his evaluation of the cyborgs. "I must say Okeer, I am most impressed by the good doctor's work so far. I trust that what you have to show me will be just as impressive?"

"Of course my lord. My research has allowed me to find ways to greatly enhance a person's capabilities far beyond what they would normally be capable of even with standard gene therapy. You will find the clones that I have grown to be extremely well trained and capable soldiers, spies, saboteurs, assassins, diplomats and engineers. They easily exceed any average soldier and are fully grown and trained in mere months. The process is inexpensive and the soldiers are not susceptible to any electronic warfare. I also have a wide range of templates for use with all sentient species and for some non sentient ones as well. My experiments with varren have shown their killing potential along with their potential for inspiring fear."

"My lord if you don't mind me saying, in all of our combat simulations my cybernetically enhanced soldiers far outstrip anything that has no such augmentations. They are clearly-"

"And yet you will find _Doctor_." Okeer growled interrupting Kovacs loudly "That my options are far more cost efficient. They are easier to mass produce and still are far more capable than anything the rest of the galaxy could send against us. I even have templates for Asari Commandos that by my initial estimates easily outstrip most commando units in the galaxy."

"And yet why would our lord need above average asari commandos when he could have my soldiers capable of taking on a far greater number of unaugmented soldiers-"

"Enough." A silence immediately fell upon the two quarreling scientists as Nox finally had enough of the argument. "You are merely wasting oxygen with your pointless arguments. Having you argue is not why I brought you in for these projects. I demand results and so far I see that I have received acceptable results. Now Dr. Kovacs I want you to continue with your research. Improve upon your designs and make sure that you have devised a quick method of implanting your undetected cybernetics within subjects. I may require you to be able to fully augment an individual with the control implants without taking longer than an hour at most. That is your next task."

Dr. Kovacs's lips tightened but she bowed respectfully "Yes my lord."

"Now Okeer, show me your facilities. I wish to see your work for myself."

"Right this way my lord." The krogan said leading the sith out to the gene and cloning labs.

* * *

 _Midwanjontû châtsatul nu asha._

* * *

"- and I'm afraid that we won't have enough funds to operate within a few months. While our operations have been providing us with a rather large profit, the new research is an even bigger money sink. If we want to continue operating we'll either have to secure a new source of funding, or cut down on spending."

Darth Nox steepled his fingers as he regarded the small hologram of Jentha. "Cutting down on spending is not an option. We will need all the research and soldiers we can get. You mentioned something about a party of all the criminal heads some time ago. Remind me of the details."

Jentha blinked, not having expected to be asked about that particular event that she had mentioned to the sith a few weeks ago, she did not however let her surprise cause her to hesitate too long and immediately began reciting what she knew from memory while quickly bringing up the information that she had on her terminal. "It's being held on Berkenstein by notorious weapons dealer and smuggler Donovan Hock. I believe that he's invited the leaders of many criminal enterprises to the gathering, likely to carry favor with some of them for various business transactions. If you don't mind me asking my lord, but do you believe we will be able to secure a source of funds from there?"

"I do." Nox answered simply. A smile stretched across his face as he watched Jentha's face express her worried emotions. "But you don't need to worry, I don't plan on making any deals with the crime lords there that will result in any long term setbacks. No I plan on something that will result in far more gains with no backlash than merely attempting to make a deal with scum. I will go there and I will force them all to kneel and they will serve me."

* * *

 _Ashajontû kotswinot itsu nuyak._

* * *

"Welcome back Commander. How are you doing?"

Kelly Chambers felt a chill crawl up her spine as Shepard turned glowing ochre colored eyes on her. The cybernetics from project lazarus were shining clearly through his skin, multiple scars had reopened to let crimson light pour out of them in stark contrast to the extremely pale skin that Shepard seemed to have taken on. "Anything to report Yeoman?" Shepard asked ignoring her previous question.

She swallowed nervously before answering. "You have multiple new messages commander. Also one of your former crew, Liara T'soni wished to meet with you when you arrived."

"Inform Dr. T'soni that I will visit her shortly. Additionally I want full reports including background information, physical and psychological reports for every person on this ship including yourself on my desk by tomorrow morning. Inform Lawson to report to my office immediately and prepare the crew for inspection."

"Of course commander."

Without a final word, Shepard turned away from the yeoman and entered the elevator. Kelly exchanged a worried glance with a nearby crewmember and began sending out the messages that the commander had ordered her to. Once she had finished the announcement she brought up the logs regarding Shepard's private terminal. She saw that he had since gone through his messages but when she looked at one in particular the log indicated that it had been deleted without being read. A frown marred her face as her eyes flitted over to the sender _Ashley Williams._

* * *

 _Wonoksh Qyâsik nun._

* * *

A/N: A bit of a short chapter but it was mainly filler, revealing some of Nox's plans and just getting back into the swing of things. Next chapter will probably end up being Hock's party.

I wasn't sure how fast clones or tank bred individuals grow in the ME universe. The Clone from the ME3 Citadel DLC would likely have been created at some point after Cerberus got hold of Shepard's body sometime in 2183 was then scheduled for termination sometime in 2184 so we know that it would take them a max of 1-2 years to grow it. But then we factor in that from what I can tell the clone was dormant but pretty much fully ready (Minus skin but I think that that was more of a conscious decision) for some time so my estimates put it at maximum 1 year to fully grow a clone or person. As for how long it takes Okeer's krogan to grow we don't know that either. We do know that the one krogan that we speak to was a week old but I'm pretty sure that's just from when he was released from the tank. All in all I think that it's not too much of a stretch to think that they managed to find a way to grow something somewhere between a month and a year.

Now in Star Wars we absolutely have information on how long it takes to grow a clone. The Kaminoans grow their clones to maturity in 10 years. Their clones grow at twice the rate that they should. Spaarti cloning cylinders can easily grow a clone within one year. If used in conjunction with Ysalamiri they can spit out a clone every 15 - 21 days.

Now we get into the difficult stuff. Because it's strongly suggested that in Mass Effect it's more than possible to grow someone in less than a year, but in SW it's said that without Ysalamiri the clones grown faster than one year become unstable due to their connection to the force. So pretty much I'm forced to say that that particular rule doesn't happen in the ME universe for some reason, I could have said because there just is no force, but I already did say that there was and that that would make things difficult for me. And so I'm just gonna say that in ME they've figured out how to make stable clones and grow them extremely quickly, which will be of much use to Nox.

As for the Cybernetics… well the ideas for all that come from somewhere else. Props to anyone who gets the references in regards to that stuff.

Anyway until next time

~LEGION


	9. Chapter 9

"Apprentice, Report." Darth Nox looked down at the holographic image of his kneeling apprentice.

"My Lord. Miranda Lawson was created and born in a laboratory. No real mother, genetically engineered to be perfect by her father, Dr. Henry Lawson. She ran away when she was young to escape her father's control. I contacted the Shadow Broker and received information that Henry Lawson also created a second child, a younger sister to Miranda Lawson by the name of Oriana Lawson. When Miranda ran from her father she took her then infant sister with her. Oriana has been growing up with a foster family under the protection of Cerberus." The fallen Spectre reported.

"I assume you have names and location?" Nox asked.

"Yes my lord. They live on Ilium. If I may ask master, I wish to inform Henry lawson of the location of his youngest child. I would require a third party to pick her up. Then when Miranda Lawson learns of her sisters plight she will rush to save her."

"An excellent scheme. When you contact Henry Lawson, tell him that if he agrees to lend his expertise, then you will provide him with his child. When he agrees, send the details to Eclipse commander Enyala. She will do what you tell her to. Do not use your true name to Enyala or Lawson, identify yourself as Jevlas. If Miranda does not come to you then I will ensure that Enyala is successful and we will let you assist her in rescuing her sister."

"Yes master. I will need to make it look convincing when I slaughter the mercenaries."

"That is why I told you to send the information to Enyala. Enyala, along with her lieutenants need to be removed, that will be your assignment. Do not fail me."

"Your will shall be done."

The hologram vanished as Nox clasped his hands in front of him, hiding them within the sleeves of his robes as his golden eyes stared out at the crippled ship rotating listlessly outside the window.

"My lord, their engines have been disabled. Shall I dispatch the boarding party?"

The left side of the sith's face twitched into the barest hint of a smile as he turned to face the human behind him. "No captain. I will be dealing with these myself. I haven't been able to stretch my legs in quite some time."

Captain Hartle swallowed nervously "Ahh if you are certain my lord. But I must warn you there are likely to be quite a few crew onboard. They will resist you fiercely."

"They will try, Captain. But in the end only murder and mayhem awaits them." Nox's ominous words hung in the air long after the black clad sith had left the bridge.

With a shudder of dread Captain Hartle turned to the pilot, an equally terrified looking salarian and gave him a jerky nod. "Match speed and rotation. Extend docking clamp and dock with their starboard docking port."

* * *

 _ **Nwûl tash. Dzwol shâsotkun. Shâsotjontû châtsatul nu tyûk.**_

* * *

It was always this time that Nox savored the most, the few moments before the massacre. Each time was different in some way, but they all had the same roiling of anticipation from the force as the dark side coalesced around him as he fed it his hatred, feeling his anger flare up sharply for just a moment before he tightened his grasp on it and brought the hot fury down to a cold rage.

He stepped forward, the airlock door sliding open in front of him revealing the long hallway of the docking tube. The door closed behind him with a loud _thud_ and as he stepped forward, there was the slight shift of gravity as he entered the area where the two ships mass effect fields overlapped. A few more slow deliberate steps brought him out of the gravity field of the _Eagle's Spike_ and he was standing in front of the airlock of the helpless frigate.

A dark mist was pooling around Nox's feet billowing upwards quickly until it soon filled the airlock tube as the Sith basked in the dark side for a moment before he focused his golden eyes on the door in front of him. His cold rage forced into a spear that he blasted into the door in front of him, tearing it from hits frame with a loud _crash._ He stepped forward into the airlock beyond and extended his mind. He could feel the turian's on the other side, even their extremely disciplined minds slowly beginning to waver as the force began to assault their senses. Only a single airlock door between the sith and the worms, a single door that slowly buckled inwards as the sith slowly peeled away at the metal, the metal creaking and groaning under the inexorable force of the sith lord.

The purple mist began pouring in through the cracks in stray wisps that curled lazily to the floor beyond. The red emergency lighting within flickered and died as Nox cut the power within shrouding the airlock door in darkness and a moment later the door finally released it's last painful groan, completely bent inwards revealing the turians left within. There was a second of silence as the turians stared grimly into the darkness straining to see anything until suddenly there was a sharp crackle of electricity, a blast of light and a pained scream. Instantly there was the sudden thunder of gunfire as ten rifles opened up simultaneously, muzzle flashes revealing the scene in snapshots as each shot impacted a barrier of sparking energy, held aloft by Nox's right hand as blasts of lightning arced out from his left. Each strike sending another turian to the ground with pained shouts. Half of the turians were dead before the other half even realized it and only two of the initial eleven turians managed to get even as far as the door at the end of the corridor before succumbing to Nox's onslaught.

The door blew apart at Nox's approach and the now open portal was instantly filled with gunfire as the remaining defenders tried in vain to repel the sith lord who strode into the room, barrier sparking with small forks of lightning every time it was hit until the sheer volume of fire caused it to become almost opaque from all the impacts striking it. Nox stopped partway into the room and let his gaze rove across all of the turians that stood arrayed against him. Finally his gaze came to a rest on a turian reloading behind a bulkhead. The turian flinched as Nox's left hand reached out towards him, fingers twisting to form a claw like shape. Nox's eyes pulsed a faint purple and the turian let out a hideous shriek and without hesitation turned his newly reloaded rifle on his friend next to him and unloaded. The bullets, fired from within his barrier were only slowed by the hardsuit of the turian that had been caught off guard by the sudden attack from behind.

A second identical shriek sounded from the other side of the room followed immediately by one more from the center of the turian position and three more soldiers were killed by individuals they had once counted as comrades in arms. The fire upon the sith stopped almost instantly as the turians turned to engage the new threat within their very midst. The moment they did so then Nox released the barrier held up in front of him with his right hand and extended it until both his hands were pointed at the center of the arc of soldiers. A single bright bolt of lightning lanced out from his hands, accompanied by the crackle of electricity as it struck one of the turians where it split into two more bolts. Upon striking their targets those bolts split once more, crisscrossing each other, combining and separating as they jumped from soldier to soldier. Some bolts struck crates or walls where they faded, leaving only patterns of jagged blackened scorch marks.

It was over within seconds as the last bolt of energy jumped from a spasming turian to an electrical outlet on the wall behind him. Nox surveyed the room as he slowly walked over to a turian, wheezing and gasping for air as he lay on the floor, every now and then his body jerking as a remnant of Nox's lighting coursed through his body. The turian tried to focus on the approaching sith with one eye fused shut and the other half closed. One mandible hung limply from his jaw as the other fluttered slightly as he tried to speak. "Wha- Why?" He wheezed as the sith stood over him in silence.

Without a word, Nox raised his hand, palm raised and fingers bent slightly as the turian groaned in pain as a dark mist started seeping out of every pore and orifice of his body. The mist rose up in long streams, twisting around Nox's hand and arm. As the last of the mist lifted it from the turian's now dead and desiccated corpse the Sith clenched his hand suddenly into a fist and the mist quickly and suddenly sank into his arm, vanishing from sight.

With a sharp turn, Darth Nox strode back the way he came, leaving a dead hierarchy frigate behind, the cold grave of thirty-five turian soldiers.

* * *

 _ **Tyûkjontû châtsatul nu midwan. Midwanjontû châtsatul nu asha.**_

* * *

"This is growing out of hand, four frigates taken out without any warning or any sign of the attackers and now an entire cruiser? Someone is waging war on us and we don't have the faintest idea who."

"The attack on the _Triumphant Valor_ has some differences to the attacks that came before it has it not?" Councillor Valern asked, looking over the data on his console.

"Yes, in addition to the electrical burns on some of the victims we now also have small concentrated and localized burn marks." Sparatus answered.

Valern tilted his head "Very similar to the type of damage one might expect from an energy weapon. No indications of any projectile weaponry used. In fact." The salarian paused bringing up another report on his console "The damage done to the ships themselves, they might actually be the same sort of damage only on a much smaller scale."

"Could this be the work of the collectors? They are the only ones we know of that have that sort of technology." Councillor Anderson asked narrowing his eyes in contemplation.

Tevos sighed "It's either that or there's a new faction with advanced technology. I'm not sure which scenario is worse. Regardless we should send an agent to investigate."

Sparatus nodded "I agree. Drusnius is available, I'll send for her."

"There are also the reports from the terminus that we should look into, reports of an alliance forming between the major mercenary companies. We should have Shepard investigate." Valern said.

"Shepard isn't the most discrete of operatives. Are you sure we want him investigating this?" Sparatus asked with a raised eyebrow.

"He doesn't need to be." Tevos commented. "He's the most likely to encounter them while he's doing whatever it is he's doing out there. He just needs to send us whatever information he gets while out there."

"Shepard will help. He's an excellent soldier and more than capable of pulling through."

Sparatus glanced at Anderson. "Are you sure about that? I admit before his disappearance I had begun to believe that as well, however his reappearance, working with Cerberus has me doubting him once more."

Anderson nodded confidently "Absolutely. I have absolute confidence in him. He believes that he can use Cerberus to help him in his own mission of hunting down the collectors. It's likely that he is gathering as much information on them as possible which he will turn in when the time is right."

"Those are some big assumptions Councillor. What if they are not what is going on?" Sparatus shot back.

Before Anderson could respond Tevos stepped in "We do not have enough information either way. We must remain watchful and find out if Shepard can be trusted. Sending him to investigate the mercenaries would be a good place to start."

"Very well. I will make the call." Anderson agreed, navigating through his console with a series of quick, practiced taps.

"In the meantime we should discuss the continued requests from the hanar regarding the new dig site on Nepheron." Tevos's words were met with grimaces from Sparatus and Anderson and a blink from Valern.

The councillors started discussing the dig site and possible compromises about how the excavation of the newly discovered archeology site would proceed until with a soft chime Anderson straightened and gave his other councillors a nod. Quickly ending the topic of discussion the four councillors turned towards a holographic display and a moment later the lifesized image of the human Spectre.

Anderson tilted his head with surprise as he saw the Commander. Pale skin stood out in stark relief to the scars that were starting to reopen, glowing orange light gleaming through from underneath. Anderson was a trained N7 Soldier, had seen much having served in the first contact war and in the years after with distinction, yet he could not help but feel a slight shiver run down his spine as he took in the cold, gleaming red eyes that regarded him from oh so far away.

He quickly pulled himself together, his hesitation barely lasting a couple of seconds. "Commander! I hope you are doing well."

"What do you want?" The sudden brusque question, was so unlike the commander that it caused Anderson to hesitate for a moment. Before he could respond Shepard let out a ragged sigh and the hint of a very forced, vaguely apologetic smile appeared on his face. "Apologies, I have been very busy recently and haven't been able to sleep much. What can I do for you?"

"We've heard some curious reports coming in from the terminus, apparently there's been some sort of alliance between mercenary companies, pirates and other criminal elements forming there." Tevos began.

Shepard nodded sharply "That is accurate. I've witnessed Blue Suns, Blood Pack and Eclipse all working together on Omega."

"Well STG has reported further operations of not only them but also multiple other organizations working together. One thing has cropped up multiple times in communications between various organizations referring to what may be their leader, a so called Dark Lord of the Sith. He goes by the name Darth Nox. Have you heard of him?"

"Nox, of course." Shepard muttered quietly before straightening "Yes unfortunately I have, and I had the misfortune of meeting the man."

Sparatus straightened "You have? When?"

"A month or two ago. Shortly before I first reported back to you. I was going to pick up a new member for my team but when I got there the entire facility had been driven completely insane. The only one left there was Nox. He called himself a Sith Lord and displayed some extraordinary powers, he never told me how he did some of the things he did. He offered to join me in hunting the collectors. At the time I figured that I would need him to hunt the Collectors, unfortunately he turned on me when we were on Omega, trashed Afterlife single handedly against Aria's guards and vanished. I haven't seen him since."

"What sort of man was he?" Tevos asked intently.

Shepard narrowed his eyes in thought, the orange glow dimming for a second. "Driven, confident, maybe a little religious but very ruthless."

"What about the powers that he used? Biotics? Technology?" Valern inquired.

"I don't think they were biotics, there was no element zero aura around him, no visual signs of biotic ability, although some of the things he did were similar. He managed to pick up things and move them around telekinetically, the control he displayed easily rivaled some of the most proficient biotics i've seen. But he also had other abilities, electricity. He seemed to be able to shoot electricity from his hands or control it in some other way."

Valern raised an eyebrow "Technology based?"

"Must be. I didn't see anything that was causing it but he wore heavy robes, could easily have been hiding something underneath them."

"Well I think that we are all in agreement when we say that discovering more about this Nox is rather important. He may be trying to rally the terminus behind his banner." Sparatus said.

"There have been many warlords trying to unite the terminus systems in the past. We've had four in the past thirty years. They never succeed, the terminus is just too fragmented." Anderson commented.

"But not many of them have gotten as far as Nox has gone. Most major players in the terminus are already involved with him in some way." Sparatus responded.

"We've always made sure to eliminate those that do get any real support quickly." Tevos continued "But Aria controls Omega for a reason. She won't let someone gain more power than here in the terminus. I expect that while she controls omega, she will make sure to deal with Nox before he gains any more support."

"As you have already dealt with this Nox in the past, we are assigning you to investigate him and his alliance further. Report back any information that you receive and we will decide any further actions then."

A grin grew on Shepard's face "It would be a pleasure Councillors."

Anderson exchanged a quick glance with the rest of the council before dismissing the spectre. "That will be all Commander. Make sure you get some rest, you look like you need it."

A brief shadow flitted over his face before he bowed his head in acknowledgement.

The holograms of the council faded leaving Shepard alone in the communications room a sneer settling on his face. The council couldn't have chosen a worse- or rather best person to investigate Nox if they had tried. He would have to inform his master of his new assignment, he was sure that Lord Nox would have specific instructions for him.

As he returned to his quarters he passed Chambers at her station. She gave him a nod and a slight smile as he approached. At first when he had first come aboard the new Normandy been suspicious of her, then he began to view her as pathetic and weak. She had seemed to merely be a sympathetic face placed aboard the ship by cerberus. But now after having studied her background and abilities he realized that she had a vast amount of potential for the Sith Apprentice. Her charming demeanor would be perfect for interacting with people and her intelligence and skills in psychology could let her manipulate them into better serving him. Alongside Miranda she would likely be a great asset in securing the absolute loyalty that he demanded. First however he would have to secure her obedience, but Shepard already had a plan for that.

"Hello Kelly." He said giving her a smile.

"Hey Commander, how are you doing." She responded with a smile of her own.

"Oh not too bad, just got finished talking to the council." He said bringing a hand to absently trace one of his scars, seeing her take note of the action.

"Oh? I'm guessing that it would be too much to believe that they offered their assistance."

Shepard rolled his eyes allowing a bit of annoyance to show. "Of course it is. After all it's not like I'm saving the galaxy again. No instead they would rather continue to ignore that what's staring them straight in the face." He let out a heavy sigh. "Sometimes I wonder why I even bother. The galaxy doesn't seem to want to be saved."

"Don't worry about that too much Commander, there are many in the galaxy who believe you, and those who don't- well I guess we'll have to save them against their will." She finished with a broad smile.

Shepard grinned "Save them against their will huh? I like that idea. Thanks Kelly."

"No problem Commander."

Excusing himself with a charming smile, Shepard entered the elevator and began the short trip up to his cabin where after a quick check of his mail and seeing an answer from dr. Henry Lawson. With a pleased expression, Shepard drafted a reply alongside a message to Enyala on Ilium, along with a message to his master about the Council's assignment. Plans set into motion, Shepard kneeled in front of the small table by the foot of his bed where a pyramid stood, pulsing regularly with dull red light. He reached out, following the eddies of energy, manipulating them. As he sank into the force the pulsing light of the pyramid in front of him became a steady red glow.

"Apprentice! Come for yet another lesson I see. Wonderfull."

* * *

 _ **Ashajontû kotswinot itsu nuyak. Wonoksh Qyâsik nun.**_

* * *

" _The first test went flawlessly. Enemy casualties were complete with only a few units suffering casualties."_

"I witnessed their aptitude for slaughter firsthand Doctor. I was most pleased. I am going to be expanding our operations against the hierarchy as we move through the next stage of the plan. Begin harvesting the bodies and begin work on augmenting them as well. Production must advance quickly."

" _Of course my lord. I will require more funds or resources if I am to increase production."_ Doctor Alexa Kovacs said with a short bow, her hologram flickering slightly at the movement.

"You will receive both. What of you Okeer, when will the first clones be ready?" Nox said turning to the hologram of the krogan Scientist.

" _Five thousand standard units will be ready within two weeks my lord. As production increases that amount will grow ever larger. One hundred Commando units along with approximately one thousand special units will be ready around the same time as well."_

"Only five thousand? I want an army Okeer, not a militia."

Okeer bristled. " _My creations will be far more superior than some militia, they will be superior to most soldiers, but growing them requires more credits. At the moment I am only capable of producing ten thousand units per month. The more credits you provide me the faster I can produce them."_

Nox regarded the Krogan Warlord for a few moments. "Your funding will be increased, but I demand appropriate results.

" _I can assure you that they will provide you with them."_ Okeer rumbled.

"And if they don't you will bear witness to my displeasure Okeer, remember that." Nox warned giving the krogan a cold stare. "Now I will visit in two weeks time to inspect the units and provide them their first target. Kovacs, continue production. In addition I hope that you have the capability to implant a large group of individuals within a short period of time with control implants?"

" _How large a group?"_ Kovacs asked carefully.

"Approximately fifty individuals of differing races."

She nodded slowly " _I will have to cease production of standard Cyborgs but that will be of no concern. When can I expect the subjects to arrive?"_

Nox smiled sinisterly "The subjects will not come to you, you will be making a house call. In one week's time there is a party being held on Berkenstein. The visitors of this party would make a valuable asset for my empire. You will prepare your equipment for transport and they will undergo the implantation there."

Alexa's eyes widened " _My Lord! The surgery that is required for such an action must be completed in a sterile environment. If they contract an infection during surgery then they could die, or during."_

"Are you saying that you are incapable of doing what I demand of you?"

The doctor's eyes darted from side to side " _Not at all my lord, I merely wish to inform you of the risks."_

"Well, make sure that you minimize the risks, if one of those individuals were to die then I would be most… upset." Nox said, his yellow eyes glittering dangerously.

" _My Lord, if I may."_ Nox glanced over at Okeer who had spoken. " _I may have another option. It is possible to subject individuals to a similar procedure to what I use to instruct the tank bred. I could condition them to be loyal to you. The entire procedure would likely take longer, however we could begin with a simple command to return at a later date for more thorough conditioning."_

" _There is no need for that my lord."_ Alexa Kovacs cut in quickly " _I am more than capable-"_

"Are there any risks Okeer?" Nox answered ignoring the other Doctor completely.

" _Certainly, there are always risks, however they are unlikely and can easily be managed. There is the possibility that over time the subjects might be able to begin to resist the initial conditioning, but we would merely have to ensure that they undergo the primary procedure quickly."_

" _My method is just as effective and the subjects will be unable to resist the influence and the surgery is extremely safe so long as it is done within a sterile environment. We would not have to risk them resisting the initial conditioning before they could be fully controlled."_

"A valid concern, yet Okeer's method is far less likely to be detected." Nox commented.

" _The implants are extremely well hidden, it would require-"_

"Enough. Do not worry doctor I will require your services in the future, however for what I require, I believe that Okeer's solution will work best. But that brings me to a new question Okeer. Why did you not mention this possibility to me earlier? I want to know everything that you are capable of. Hiding things from me is most unwise."

" _I apologize my lord, but I did not realize that it was possible or that you had need of such. As soon as I learned of your request of Dr. Kovacs I began researching ways to achieve similar results."_

"Very well, but I expect you keep me informed of such possibilities in the future. If I learn that you have been keeping things from me then you will wish that you had died back on Korlus. Do I make myself clear?"

" _Yes my lord."_

"I expect you to be prepared in one week's time." Nox said shutting down the holocall and stowing the small device inside his robes. The wind blew violently by him causing his robes to whip around him as he stared out towards the marshlands in front of him.

"Multiple vehicles are approaching from the east my lord." A black clad trooper spoke up from behind him.

"I like turians, they're always so punctual." Nox reached into his robes and pulled out his mask. He turned it over running his gaze over the runes inscribed upon it for a moment before raising it to his face. With a click and a hiss it attached to his helmet hidden underneath his robes, creating an airtight seal. He took a long deep breath of filtered air as the two speeders approached the hill upon which he stood. With a quick wave of his hand the four troopers arrayed themselves behind him, blasters lowered.

The three speeders landed a few hundred meters away and Nox watched motionlessly as a group of ten figures exited and after a few minutes of talking the group turned and began walking towards the Dark Lord.

They were all turians, wearing worn and dirty armor along with older rifles the make of which Nox couldn't care to identify. They marched with the military precision expected of ex turian military. Nox stood still, his hands clasped behind his back, robe flapping in the wind, revealing his lightsaber hanging at his side as the group approached and stopped just outside of talking distance.

"I hope that Tanus himself came. I have no interest in dealing with lackeys." Nox called out running his gaze along the group of turians that shifted as the lead turian spoke.

"Tanus wasn't about to risk himself by coming here to talk to someone who came from spirits knows where. I'm here in his stead. I'm Galernus Trenirius. "I'm assuming that you're that Nox guy?"

There was a second of silence until there was a sudden blast of lightning that sent the entire group of turians falling screaming to the floor. As quickly as it came the lightning ceased and Nox slowly stepped forward shaking his head. "I warned him, I warned you. I will not deal with lackeys. I suggest that you contact him or else you will continue to experience pain."

Seeing a lack of movement Nox growled angrily raising a hand towards Trenirius releasing a bolt of energy that had the turian writhing in pain. "I said now!"

"Wait! Wait I can call him!" A turian yelped as Nox turned toward him, his hand outstretched.

"Finally, someone not a complete waste of time." Nox strode forward until he was towering over the cowering turian. "Well? What are you waiting for?"

"This!" The turian shouted driving a hand towards the Sith's foot, a blade of orange extending from his omni-tool. The omni-blade stopped a foot from making contact with the sith.

"That, was a very stupid thing to do." Nox said quietly, his voice colder than a night on hoth.

The turian stared in astonishment at the invisible force that held his hand in place. He let out a shocked yelp as he was slowly but steadily lifted into the air alongside his companions. Nox stood in front of the group of turians staring at them as they struggled against the invisible bonds that held them where they were. "Since you are not willing to do this the easy way, I will instead do it the fun way."

Nox suddenly clenched his fist and the struggles of a pair of turians suddenly grew desperate as their hands lept to their throats, trying to relieve the pressure that was building around their windpipes. With a sharp swipe of his hand another group of turians were tossed violently to the side where they smashed into nearby trees, rocks or just impacted into the earth with loud cracks. With a series of short gestures he threw another few turns towards him, each turian being bisected by the violet blade of his lightsaber. He turned towards the last few turians who were pleading incoherently for their lives only to be struck ruthlessly under a barrage of lightning that had them screaming and writhing in midair. As they screamed and twitched Nox slowly approached them and once he was close he ceased his assault and released his grip letting the turians fall to the ground in limp heaps.

"Now then." He said looking down at the gasping and still twitching body of Trenirius. "Are you ready to obey?"

* * *

 _Happy holidays to everyone!_

 _Those of you that recognize the name_ Kihilix Tanus _might be able to guess whats in the works. Otherwise the rest of you will just have to wait and see._

 _Until next time everyone._


End file.
